{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/near-the-cascades",
 "title": "Near the Cascades",
 "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": 34,
 "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 79,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Hold back thy lips, I pray;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Just let me rest this way;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul is in the spray",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Arising from the silvery cascades murmuring farewell to the day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy kisses ’neath a sigh",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mine extinguished lie;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "O friend, I choke, I die:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Pray, let me raise my head to see the parting light, the vivid sky,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If every kiss of thine",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Is safely kept with mine",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "For one for whom I pine,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Wouldst thou, contented with the taking, call my love a love divine?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ay, and for every tear",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou sheddest when I’m near",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "I shed a score to hear",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Her echo my desire’s sigh, albeit she is not thy peer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I were but a reed,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Or but a fern or weed,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "This would not be my creed;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "But prick thou these cold slips and all the roots of me in heaven will bleed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy burning breath is creeping",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "All over me; ’t is leaping",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Into my bones and sweeping",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Their ashes out, up and into mine eyes, alas! the awful reaping.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No longer do I fear,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor see, nor feel, nor hear;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "No longer am I near;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou wilt quench thy flame, kiss now the lips that were to thee so dear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As well kiss thou the grass",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "On which I lay, alas!",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Like me, thou too wilt pass;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "One kiss will turn thy lips to ashes and one tear, thine eyes to glass.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beneath this hemlock tree",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "A clod I leave to thee;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "But over land and sea",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul is rising, rising, rising, searching for the gods that be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But gods have lived, and lied,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And loved, and fell, and died;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And like me too they cried",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "For mercy at the snow white feet of Beauty’s daughter, Beauty’s bride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when from Beauty’s spell",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Her soul is free, she’ll dwell",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In mine, the storm to quell;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In mine she’ll rise to realms of bliss, or swiftly whirl into the deepest hell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}