{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/nectar-and-blood",
 "title": "Nectar and Blood",
 "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": 5,
 "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": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "If I should worship at thine ancient shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where thy good sons, incensed by love of war,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now clamor, as their fathers did of yore⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I should sacrifice what is not mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor any living god’s, nor even thine⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If for the sake of honor I must pour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This cup of life upon thy barren shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How will it fare then with my love divine?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No! let thy sons go forth to burn and slay:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let them for love of thee and glory smear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tear the love of all that’s pure and dear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let them this loveless love in rage display;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can not join them; no, I can not cheer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As they beneath my window pass today.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What care I for the tears the maudlin crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sheds o’er my bier⁠—for praise of Church and State⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For glory that remains within the gate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of worldly things⁠—for men’s esteem avowed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For freedom that is not with love endowed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For fame that lingers oft and comes too late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When these the sorrow of my love create",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And haunt her with the shadow of my shroud?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How cowardly, self-centered have I grown⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How dead to true and noble feelings all?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why not, when they the human soul enthrall⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why not, when they the beast in man enthrone?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I cling to love, and with love I will fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unwept, unsung, unhonored and unknown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What will these kings and war-lords of the land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all their ministers of murder fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do with their arms and fleets⁠—all tools of hell⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If every son of man resolve to stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A-wielding, king-like, in his home the wand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the ones he loves and honors well?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can force this gentle host of peace compel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When loving hearts their amber wings expand?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O love, though hounded, outlawed we may be⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though Slander, dagger-drawn, be on our trail⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though Hatred with her hydra tongues should rail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At us, and though left sinking in the sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ostracism, ay, never will I quail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But will now and forever cling to thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}