{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/andalusia",
 "title": "Andalusia",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ameen Rihani",
 "poet_slug": "ameen-rihani",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "a-chant-of-mystics-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1921,
  "venue": "A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems (1921)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/chantofmysticsot00riha"
  ]
 },
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 4,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": "Alcazar",
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": "Alhambra",
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": "The Mosque",
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": "Al-Zahra",
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There was a rhapsody in all her moods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A child-like grace, a passion unrestrained;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her throne, which bard and saki shared, was stained",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With virgin wine as with the blood of feuds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her lyric-woven interludes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Epitomizing destiny and time,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her spirit, hid in opalescent rhyme,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The shades of Melancholy still eludes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where’er she trod, the rose and bulbul meet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’er she revelled, gardens ever blow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’er she danced, the henna of her feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet lends a lustre to the poppy’s glow;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arabia, dark-eyed, light-hearted, fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is but a flower in Andalusia’s hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gods of the silence, still remembering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dying echoes of her lute, bemoan,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In canticles of golden monotone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her Orient splendor too soon vanishing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while lions guard her courts, grey eagles wing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around her turquoise domes, and seedlings blown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From distant lands to her hushed fountains cling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, and the sun himself sits in her throne.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Time, once her vassal, lingers near the streams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That woo the shadows of her crumbling walls,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, musing of Alhambra’s glory, dreams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Elegance and Power in Myrtle Halls;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arabia, once counted of the strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is but a sigh in Andalusia’s song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the bewildering grove of colonnades,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once brilliant with a flood of saffron light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Poured from ten thousand lanterns day and night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her memory, like spikenard in the glades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of distant Ind or Yemen, never fades;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her devotion, though the ages blight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The mystic bloom of her divine delight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Still casts on alien altars longing shades.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But through the mihrabs which the humble hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of genius wrought, o’er marbles hollowed deep",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By knees that only Piety could command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I see Oblivion coming forth to reap;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arabia, in Allah’s chaplet strung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is but a word on Andalusia’s tongue.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not with the Orient glamor of her pleasures,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor with fond rhapsodies of prayer or song",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Could she her sovereign reign a day prolong;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in the things of beauty that man measures",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the variable humor of his leisures,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or by the credibilities that change",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From faith to fantasy to rumor strange,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was she the mistress of immortal treasures.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when the holy shrine Europa sought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Herself of sin and witchcraft to assoil,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sovereigns of al-Zahra maxims wrought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Averroes burned his midnight oil;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arabia, the bearer of the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still sparkles in the diadem of Night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}