{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/the-two-brothers",
 "title": "The Two Brothers",
 "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": 18,
 "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": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In the grotto the forest designed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the firefly first dreamed of the sun",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the cricket first chirped to the blind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Zoophyte⁠—in the cave of the mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We were born and our cradle is one.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We are brothers: together we dwelt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unknown and unheard and unseen",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For aeons; together we felt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The urge of the forces that melt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rocks into willowy green.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For aeons together we drifted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the molten abysses of flame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the Cycles our heritage sifted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the vapor and ooze, and uplifted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The image that now bears our name.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I am God: thou art Man: but the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That mothers the planets, the sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of star-dust that roofs every height",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Universe, the gulfs of the night⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are surging in thee as in me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But out of the Chaos, to lead us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Giants that borrow our eyes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lend us their shoulders, must heed us;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They yield us their purpose, they deed us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forever the worlds and the skies.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}