{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/upon-the-peak-of-sanneen",
 "title": "Upon the Peak of Sanneen",
 "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": null,
 "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": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 17,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My soul and I, upon the peak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Sanneen grim and grey,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sat musing in the twilight of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sombre summer day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Great Saturn and the Moon are gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Together o’er the sea;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But will great Saturn e’er return",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should he elope with thee?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah well, who knows? when thou art gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, too, shall sink within the brine⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I, too, shall sail above this peak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And signal yonder groves of pine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold the melancholy sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this forgotten land;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On this side are the valleys bleak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On this, the desert sand.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I hear the moaning of the wind,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sad companion said;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“The snow is gathering in me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the night is overhead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Long have we dwelt together, friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In our sweet ennui;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But were I now to take my leave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas, what would I be?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, think not of departing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, too young I am to die;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll find the magic wings; and there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still hangs a friendly sky.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let us above these pines, and clouds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And scents awhile yet dwell;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where wouldst thou go, if thou wert now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sigh a last farewell?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou seest the busy elements",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dissolving one by one",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The souls that are acquitted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the all-absorbing sun.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let’s sing the song of darkness then;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy prison is the Whole;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What canst thou do, where wilt thou go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What wilt thou be, my Soul?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the air that weighs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the rising dust;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the fog that chokes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The air in savage lust.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the clouds that block",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The smoke’s way to a star;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor linger in the guilty tears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of clouds before the bar.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the rain that taunts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The all-devouring sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Itself destroying many a nest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In bush and rock and tree.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the thunder’s tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spell-binding all the spheres;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor wouldst thou be the lightning blade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stabs and disappears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the dew that falls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alike on thorn and flower;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor even the morning zephyr",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That blows o’er den and bower.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst not be the virgin snow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set free from yonder clouds,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to melt beneath the feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of surging human crowds.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“No! none of these,” my Soul replied;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’ll shiver ever thrall;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me rise, for I would be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sky above them all.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}