{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/to-my-father",
 "title": "To My Father",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 28,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Peace and her huge invasion to these shores",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Puts daily home; innumerable sails",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dawn on the far horizon and draw near;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Innumerable loves, uncounted hopes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To our wild coasts, not darkling now, approach:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not now obscure, since thou and thine are there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bright on the lone isle, the foundered reef,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The long, resounding foreland, Pharos stands.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "These are thy works, O father, these thy crown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether on high the air be pure, they shine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the yellowing sunset, and all night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the unnumbered stars of God they shine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whether fogs arise and far and wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The low sea-level drown⁠—each finds a tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all night long the tolling bell resounds:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So shine, so toll, till night be overpast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the stars vanish, till the sun return,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the haven rides the fleet secure.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the first hour, the seaman in his skiff",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moves through the unmoving bay, to where the town",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its earliest smoke into the air upbreathes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rough hazels climb along the beach.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the tugged oar the distant echo speaks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ship lies resting, where by reef and roost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou and thy lights have led her like a child.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This hast thou done, and I⁠—can I be base?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must arise, O father, and to port",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some lost, complaining seaman pilot home.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}