{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/a-peasants-song",
 "title": "A Peasant’s Song",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ameen Rihani",
 "poet_slug": "ameen-rihani",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Myrtle and Myrrh",
 "book_slug": "myrtle-and-myrrh",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 22,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1905,
  "venue": "Myrtle and Myrrh (1905)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/myrtlemyrrhpoems00riha"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ameen-rihani_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Myrtle_and_Myrrh",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Chant_of_Mystics_and_Other_Poems",
   "https://archive.org/details/myrtlemyrrhpoems00riha",
   "https://archive.org/details/chantofmysticsot00riha"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 32,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O, thou, who loved me once,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thy Pagoda glance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shoot down a poisoned lance:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All’s well that comes from thee.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Look back, look down once more;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear was to thee this shore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I see thee nevermore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the olive tree.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Remains my station low,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whilst thou dost greater grow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, fate hath struck the blow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That parted thee and me.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How can I bear my fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How can I loveless wait",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this most sorry state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thou art far and free?",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far from the soul that swore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On love’s abysmal door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cling forevermore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To none on earth but thee;",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Free from the sacred plight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, to dispel the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou madest, when I quite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell near thy bended knee.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dost thou not still remember",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love’s May and Love’s December?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both burned their sacred ember",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In our sweet company.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dost hear the echoes fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within thy gilded hall?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dost thou not ever recall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The day thou wert like me?",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When all thy gardens bloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look out into the gloom;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There does the flame consume",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy budless lilac tree.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There often thou didst play",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A-mindless of the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When soul to soul would say:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“No more of thee and me.”",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when withers thy rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throw to the wind that blows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way a leaf; who knows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What therein I can see.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And till my course is run",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll count them one by one⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These leaves; and may the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of joy ne’er set on thee.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}