{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-dumb-soldier",
 "title": "The Dumb Soldier",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Child's Garden of Verses",
 "book_slug": "childs-garden-of-verses",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 52,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1885,
  "venue": "A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/achildsgardenve04stevgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 34,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When the grass was closely mown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking on the lawn alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the turf a hole I found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hid a soldier underground.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Spring and daisies came apace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grasses hide my hiding-place;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grasses run like a green sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the lawn up to my knee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Under grass alone he lies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looking up with leaden eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scarlet coat and pointed gun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the stars and to the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the grass is ripe like grain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the scythe is stoned again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the lawn is shaven clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then my hole shall reappear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I shall find him, never fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall find my grenadier;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, for all that’s gone and come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall find my soldier dumb.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He has lived, a little thing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the grassy woods of spring;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Done, if he could tell me true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Just as I should like to do.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He has seen the starry hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the springing of the flowers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the fairy things that pass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the forests of the grass.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the silence he has heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Talking bee and ladybird,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the butterfly has flown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er him as he lay alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not a word will he disclose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a word of all he knows.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must lay him on the shelf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make up the tale myself.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}