{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-sufi",
 "title": "The Sufi",
 "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": null,
 "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": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 6
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lulled in the purple darkness is my soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behind the curtain, Allah, of my sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where recreative waves of wonder roll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From sad seas of color over dead seas of light:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I close my eyes and lo, the laden Night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stops at the ivory gate to pay thy toll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my soul.",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And with it Wealth in Destitution’s van,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And power in the chariot of Dole,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Fame upon the skeleton she stole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Death, Ambition, too, amidst her clan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spurring her jaded nag:⁠—the Caravan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Life is at the gate to pay thy toll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my soul.",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They pass: I open my eyes: and as I try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To con the cruel pages of the scroll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which Censure left in fragments at their goal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then suddenly, illumining the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A form of grace and beauty I descry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’T is Love, O Allah, come to pay thy toll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my soul.",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But once, while lingering in the doleful shades,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the fallen, wine-stained colonnades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of what was once thy temple, where still troll,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With languid step, the spirit of pagan maids,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw thee, Allah, coming through the glades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With food of love and from thy scrip I stole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A jasmine for my hungry soul.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ]
 ]
}