{
 "id": "edgar-allan-poe/the-lake",
 "title": "The Lake",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Tamerlane and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "tamerlane-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1827,
  "venue": "Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fLcDAAAAQAAJ"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-allan-poe_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Acrostic",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(Poe)",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Serenade_(Poe)",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksedgarallan00unkngoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924019520810",
   "https://archive.org/details/jstor-2915307"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 23,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In spring of youth it was my lot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To haunt of the wide world a spot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The which I could not love the less⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So lovely was the loneliness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the tall pines that towered around.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when the Night had thrown her pall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon that spot, as upon all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mystic wind went by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmuring in melody⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then⁠—ah, then, I would awake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the terror of the lone lake.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet that terror was not fright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But a tremulous delight⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A feeling not the jewelled mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could teach or bribe me to define⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor Love⁠—although the Love were thine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death was in that poisonous wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in its gulf a fitting grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him who thence could solace bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To his lone imagining⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose solitary soul could make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An Eden of that dim lake.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}