{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/disarmed-desire",
 "title": "Disarmed Desire",
 "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": 7,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O, how the light drifts from the hemlock grove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How in the night disarmed Desires do rove!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A sister to the dumb hydrangea thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A mystery born of the Then and Now.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The color on thy clouded face⁠—ah me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is’t from the embers that still burn in thee?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Has not the forge of suffering robbed thee of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flame with which weak mortals feed their love?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou, no longer fancying the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conjure a virgin flame from darkest night?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And feed it with the salvias of a soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That would, but yet⁠—alas! she seeks the Whole.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The hand that broke the screen, the heart that lied⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where are they? Come, the path of truth is wide.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The silvery cataracts of roaring rills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meander in the shadows of the hills;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And their bass music⁠—does it not arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From that descent that leads up to the skies?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O how disarmed Desire uprises, how⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Does not the darkness crown the Lightning’s brow?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet how I wish, yet how I shrink, when I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold thee⁠—ah, she’s ever in mine eye!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If thy pink, blue and golden hues disclose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The secret, might not that undo the rose?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou sister to the dumb hydrangea, when",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will all thy sombre musings rise again?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, how the light drifts from the hemlock grove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How in the night disarmed Desires do rove!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}