{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-cataclysm",
 "title": "The Cataclysm",
 "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": 1,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Even through the City of the Dead she passed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sack of Horror’s harvest to refill;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lo, into the untilled world she cast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a million hands, the black seeds of her will.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the bone-strewn waste I saw a snail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crawling out of the socket of a skull,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Exultant still:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rising from the universal bane",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thank the rain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And in the thorny flanks of the river tomb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gorged yesteryear with the fruits of fear and doubt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The nations bear when their sinews run out,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw the crocus weave her tender bloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the ivy’s tangled hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While struggling out of the gloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To praise the air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Cataclysm, passing to her goal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned inside out the pockets of the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not sparing even the altar of the soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which at the cradle of the soul she hurled.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when at last she fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the sill of hell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw in her incalculable toll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A butterfly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Winging out of the riddled emblem of God",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toward the sky;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rising with the Faith re-won",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To serenade the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}