{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/lebanus",
 "title": "Lebanus",
 "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": 11,
 "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": 113,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O my Love, how long wilt thou continue",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fondly nursing every dreaming Hour!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Our Lebanus, O my Love, is calling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, and waiting in his ancient Tower.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In his ancient, cedar-shaded castle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night and day, Lebanus sits a-musing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the memories that bloom unnoticed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every season at the feet of Sorrow;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Musing of the radiant days of Tammuz",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That went dancing with the bride of summer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the deep and pine-encircled Wadi;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Musing of the time the Prophets kindled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sacred fire in Man’s empurpled temples,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blazing all the highways of the world;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Musing of the days embattled monarchs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laid their shields and lances at his feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bowed before his throne invincible.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O my Love, the sad and lonely Cedar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever rocking in her arid splendor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever in penurious shades embosomed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reaches out for water in the meadows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for sunlight in deserted vineyards;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rears her hope above the snow eternal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crowning her Time-hallowed desolation.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O my Love, the crumbling Temple ’s dreaming",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the star that wanders from its orbit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the rose that blooms and dies forsaken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the leaves that fall from sheltering branches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to become the sport of chance winds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the bed of some unsightly creeper;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreaming of the Lebanon lily, drooping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the dells beneath forbidding ridges;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreaming of the corymbs of the elder",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That forgot the touch of loving hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the zephyr of the South, which passes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er their bloom of tender welcome, only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fans into a flame the smoldering embers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the anguish of departed lovers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O my Love, the furzes are in full bloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiting on the terrace of Lebanus",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the ardent and enamored seeker⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiting, and the secret of their silence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Locked remains within their shells of amber",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till thou comest, till they hear thee whisper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am thine and thou art mine forever.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Making toys of Time’s discarded hours?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair Lebanus, O my Love, is calling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, and waiting in his House of Flowers.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And around it wings of song unnumbered,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amber-tinted, beryline, vermilion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pour their riches in the land of mourning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strew their silver in the olive grove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weave their magic through the almond blossoms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake the incense from the terebinths,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spread in vain their gladness o’er the pines.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, a sea of Siren witchery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the sundown inundates the heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolling o’er a sea of boughs emblossomed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Multi-hued, a-glow with burning rapture;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waves of song are on the scented breezes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolling o’er the virgin snow of Sanneen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the trackless verdure of the lowland,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the mottled mountains joined forever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a wild embrace of stony silence;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolling over Wadis fondly nursing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cyclamens of unremembered seasons,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oleanders of unfathered beauty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Irises of mothered tenderness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, my Love, the robin in the olives",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrills the very shadow of the branch;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the pomegranate, thrush and skylark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill its crimson cups with flaming rapture;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the fig tree and the laden vineyard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bulbuls chant the joy of harvest-time.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, my Love, the birds of dawn are calling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whispering, chattering, warbling everywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dancing, flitting, waiting in the groves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lingering in the chinks of terraces,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Making early visits to their young.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, they’re busy making preparation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thy coming, longing to behold thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing meanwhile to the morning star,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which borrows from thine eyes its radiance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thy tresses, all its golden splendor.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt dally with the web of Time, how long?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Lone Lebanus, O my Love, is calling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, and waiting in his House of Song.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And over it our star is re-appearing!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The star of our own destiny is rising",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the mountains of embrace eternal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the cedars of the sacred faith,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the ruins of the ancient temple,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flooding them with light of tender pallor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the light that lingers in the eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of parted lovers⁠—shaking from the bosom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of night their shadows, dew-drenched, iris-scented⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Garlanding the messengers of morning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the coming of the well-loved stranger.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, the Star of Love, the Light supernal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before which bowed the world in adoration,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is re-appearing in the Orient heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thy sake, for thee, O my Belovéd.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, without thee, neither song nor flower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor star nor temple of antique Lebanus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has aught compelling of the Soul’s devotion.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with thee, the caves, the naked ridges,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The very rocks betoken the divine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Weaving gossamer of day and night?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad Lebanus, O my Love, is calling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, and waiting in his House of Light.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}