{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-road-of-make-believe",
 "title": "The Road of Make-Believe",
 "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": 16,
 "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": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "She sits upon a rock along the stream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That heard the whisper of her first Desire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Washing the faded garment of her Dream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which she had often carried to the Dyer⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Dream of her self-centred lyric fire.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the flowing, scarlet wounds of Twilight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Expiring on Aurora’s drooping wings",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the secret scimitar of Night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She dyes again her garment, while she sings",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of new-born love, though to self-love she clings.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He seeks the path of glory in the noon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of self-intoxication, dreaming still",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of power⁠—wondering why the sun and moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are not yoked to the chariot of his will.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His soul, a clinging vine, his mind, an ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He beats against the peaks of earth-bound dreams.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Subsisting on the thistles of his heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But ever seeking, in the fitful gleams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his own fire, self-admiration’s mart",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To mend his horn or whet his venomed dart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They walk together in the golden vast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of vision-haunted, soul-alluring sands.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beholding the illusions of the past",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the ruins of deserted lands;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Together, although neither understands",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The groping purpose of the other; and yet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While in their hearts the gods of conflict nod,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They gloze and smile, dissembling their regret:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love, on the Road of Make-Believe, they prod,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He going to the dogs and she, to God.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}