{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/in-memory-of-e-m-el-k",
 "title": "In Memory of E. M. El-K.",
 "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": 37,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When my parched lips upon thy princely brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Placid as tropic mead, as glacier cold,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Imprinted a last farewell, where wert thou⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where didst thy soul its loveliness unfold?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Can’t be that in some undiscovered sphere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Muses sing their souls to thine in bliss?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Can’t be that when I kiss thy forehead here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A thousand angels echo there my kiss?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What is this mask, where is the soul, O where.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from these eyes, O God, where went the light?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My silence cries within me in despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My reason’s sinking in this sea of Night.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Esau, I am beside thee now alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I dare not weep, I dare not even breathe;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But through the stillness something hither blown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Makes of thine amber locks a golden wreath.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Life flutters in thy hair as in mine eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death can not choke the breeze that whispers there",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A word of hope; beneath my breath will rise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hair with God eternity to share",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The noon and eve of Life thou didst not see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in its Dawn thou didst anticipate",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What jealous Night would not permit to be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What pain and suffering never could abate.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I strew on thee faded blossoms, Brother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or fiery buds consumed by their own flame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or myrrh and myrtle from our Mountain-mother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or golden rods that whispered oft thy name?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or, at the shrine of Liberty and Love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where thou didst worship ardently and die,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall I now join the gods come from above",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With thy sweet songs this shrine to beautify?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye sapling-pines of star-kissed Lebanon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye cedars laden with a wealth of years,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Send with the mist of dawn and the rising sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your garlands, and your incense, and your tears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}