{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/constantinople",
 "title": "Constantinople",
 "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": 4,
 "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": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When Othman’s sword, as Paleologue’s, is broken",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Othman’s gods are smitten to the dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And naught remains, not even a rusty token",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their hierarchal cruelty and lust;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When church and mosque and synagogue shall be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Despite the bigot’s cry, the zealot’s prayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unbounded in their bounties all and free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In every heritage divine to share;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thou shalt rise, rejoicing in thy loss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the ruins of a state nefast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To reconcile the Crescent and the Cross",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wash thy hands of thine unholy past;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When with the faith new-born of East and West,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which spans the azure heights of man’s desire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spirit of thy people, long oppressed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is all a-glow with its undying fire;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thou thyself, Byzantium, shalt stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the minaret of Freedom and thy voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rising above the muazzens in the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bids all the seekers of the light rejoice;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When in thy heart the flame of freedom sings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in thy hand the torch of freedom glows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in thy word the sword of freedom rings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in thy deed the seed of freedom grows⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then shall we call thee Mistress of the Morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bride of the Straits, Queen of the Golden Horn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}