{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-pagan",
 "title": "The Pagan",
 "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": 12,
 "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": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I walked into her Temple, as of yore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My Tyrian sires, allured by cryptic signs;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But sudden as I entered closed the door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the hope that mortal love resigns",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before her ancient, myrtle-bowered shrines.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I sorrowed not; though every lamp I lit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flamed up in speech articulate and said,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beware, O foolish Worshipper! ’t is writ:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who craves a gift shall give his soul instead,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lights a lamp is cursèd of the dead.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I did not heed; I passed from shrine to shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling the lamps with oil, the Fane with light;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But when I approached, O One Eternal, thine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard the terror of her tongue, and Night",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was creeping on her brow of malachite.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I did not stop, although the votive oil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I poured into thine urn to water turned;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But when the Dawn her enchantments came to foil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The secret of thy clemency I learned⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Again the oil upon thine altar burned.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then suddenly the Temple shook and swayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the shrines, except thine, disappeared;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Even so her heart, by knowledge undismayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Love’s one altar with thy hand upreared,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To Love’s one God is evermore endeared.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}