{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/midnight-mood",
 "title": "Midnight Mood",
 "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": null,
 "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": 60,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There’s one upon whose youthful breast I fain would die:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul upon her lingering lips through mine I’d pour",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In torrents that would reach and thrill Love’s every shore⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In floods that drown the earth and rise to drown the sky.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But how can I? Alas, the leaves must shield the flower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silent see her proffering to the butterfly",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her cheeks, her honeyed lips, her soul⁠—O, how can I?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In all the worlds, to change my being, is there no power?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How oft I rise at night to probe the human laws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My beating temples all my waking hours recording!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And nor solution, nor repose my task affording.⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How oft my carnal silence cries for the bliss that was!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bliss that generous nature gives, that man denies⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bliss that’s chained in idle words and damned codes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And creeds and customs creeping in their dark abodes⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The bliss that’s lost within an endless maze of lies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pray, tell me, must the North Wind blow and sweep by rule?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must he the virgin ponds and springs and rills avoid?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "See how the ocean, panting, rising, overjoyed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Holds out her arms to him⁠—why not the limpid pool?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thou, O human Ocean⁠—would that I could give",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In equal measure, when beneath me thou art parting!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O, generous, fiery soul, in love though I am wanting,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My flesh, within thy passion’s hearth, will glow and live.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou art the twilight; I’m the dawn; yet we shall meet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flood the firmament with fire and rainbow beauty.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No unfed sun or moon shall rob us of our booty,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And if the gods should frown⁠—is not rebellion sweet?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But ah, live Twilight! why cannot the Dawn be true?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why can’t I quaff from thy sad lips, as thou, from mine?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why can’t this heart, forgetting once, as well be thine?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How can I my most holy passion tame, subdue?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That youthful breast, imprisoned, I see through thine own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those Eastern eyes cannot be hidden by thy flame;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That form, as I am in thine arms⁠—O, do not blame⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In mine I fancy⁠—let me die in shame alone!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}