{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/rest",
 "title": "Rest",
 "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": 31,
 "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": 38,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Long have I a word enshrined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And worshipped with a piety blind!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long have I been seeking Rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the East and in the West!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here and there and everywhere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have I seen her shadow fair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the shadow seems to fade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the flowers of yonder glade.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In my lone retreat I sought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her, but dreams against me fought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In my nights for her I pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with sleep she stays away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Foolish is thine effort, vain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fruitless, hopeless is thy pain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the march of Motion keep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy walk and in thy sleep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond thy finite power it lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To chain the coursers of the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even nomads and cells minute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worlds of unrest constitute.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rest is no where to be found;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each to all in suffering bound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And no power can deliver thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mortal, from activity.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy life as in thy death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy heart as in thy breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the earth as in the skies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Restless Motion never dies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Always raging, always spinning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Endless and without beginning.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death, like me, is seeking Rest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the seas are in her quest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ah, poor souls, she is beyond",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our grasp; we must go on and on.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, nor even the grave is free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the laws that shackle me;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New life from his worms takes wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on his face fresh blossoms spring.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}