{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/prayer-in-the-desert",
 "title": "Prayer in the Desert",
 "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": 7,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Lord of Bounties, melt thy heaven’s breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which spreads its gold around the head of Death⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, while it smiles, devours all living things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Giving to Desolation wondrous wings:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest in the waste Arabia’s star should wane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little rain, Allah, a little rain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou Bountiful, thy Sun is weaving fast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shroud of Earth now in the sand-storm cast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth can not weep⁠—the well of faith is run⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its rivers and its desert sands are one:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O thou Bestower, once more sustain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sun-crowned Daughter with a little rain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Quiet this rising phantom-haunted sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sands; the Faithful from its fury free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enchain the monsters of the dire simoom⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let not the desert be thy children’s tomb.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou Merciful, assist us to attain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our goal⁠—a little rain, a little rain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Arabia’s thousand wounds to thee appeal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with our lips its gaping wounds we seal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prostrate upon the sands we lift our hearts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pierced in thy presence by thy flaming darts.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy children, Allah, in the throes of pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pray for a little rain, a little rain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}