{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-first-and-last",
 "title": "The First and Last",
 "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": 9,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O kiss me now; the end is near",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bright beginning; kiss me, dear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would not that thou shouldst one day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In bitter thought remembering say:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“When in the high tide of our bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon these lips I slew the kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That should have lived.” The kiss I fear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The poison, ah, the lie, my dear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fear not; O kiss me whilst I can’t",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Refuse; am I to-morrow thine?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou be near me when I pant?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I shall not go; thou wilt not pine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet thoughts!⁠—Alas, the first, the last!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, nay! I cling to thee: the past",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is dying in the lap of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In which our star is shining bright.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The fingers in the shadow, there!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What are they weaving? Look, a shroud!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, purse thy lips; do not despair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take hold my hand and speak aloud.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No, no! For whom that shroud, for whom?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not for our love⁠—not for our joy?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then seal thou with thy lips my doom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ay, with a kiss this life destroy!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}