{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-brass-bed",
 "title": "The Brass Bed",
 "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": 18,
 "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": 39,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 59,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I love thy color and thy symmetry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I love the art that wrought thy glittering arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy canopy, thy satin portieres too;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I love the silks and feathers on thy breast⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cushions and the pillows and the quilts:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I love thine every part.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet still more do I love to rest in thee⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dream of art’s perfection in thy frame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of paths as smooth, as shining as thy limbs;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of scenes as exquisite as thy coils;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of nooks as warm as thine hospitable bosom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As cool and as refreshing as thy veinless naked arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I dream of all beneath thy soothing mantle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But O, I love my dreams much more than thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one sad soul much more than all my dreams.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If thou hadst but an eye to see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To look upon the guest that lay upon thy floor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath thy silken ceiling!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O, hadst thou but an ear to hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The plaintive chirpings of this swallow-soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Couldst thou but feel her forehead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moistened with the sweat of hope and pain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For forty moons she lay within thine arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rubbing her erstwhile rosy cheeks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the ulcers of Ayoub of yore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Couldst thou but see, O Bed of Brass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Couldst thou but hear, couldst thou but feel⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of what use all thy showy stuff⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy glittering brass, the filigree of art,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy floor of down and feather cushions all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy snow-white mantles, satin tapestries?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beauty and Pain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death will not come with thee, O Pain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life will not come with thee, O Beauty!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fires of hell are but a taper’s flame compared to this.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy guest, O Bed of Brass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looks on thee with a yearning glance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet her soul, bearing the torch of Pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is searching all the worlds for Death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}