{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-mirror-speaks",
 "title": "The Mirror Speaks",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 18,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1887,
  "venue": "Underwoods (1887)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/underwoods00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where the bells peal far at sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cunning fingers fashioned me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There on palace walls I hung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While that Consuelo sung;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I heard, though I listened well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never a note, never a trill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never a beat of the chiming bell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There I hung and looked, and there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In my grey face, faces fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shone from under shining hair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well I saw the poising head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the lips moved and nothing said;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when lights were in the hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silent moved the dancers all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So a while I glowed, and then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell on dusty days and men;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long I slumbered packed in straw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long I none but dealers saw;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till before my silent eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One that sees came passing by.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now with an outlandish grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the sparkling fire I face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the blue room at Skerryvore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I wait until the door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Open, and the Prince of Men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Henry James, shall come again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}