{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/elijah-browning",
 "title": "Elijah Browning",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Lee Masters",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-lee-masters",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spoon River Anthology",
 "book_slug": "spoon-river-anthology",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 243,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Spoon River Anthology (1916)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-lee-masters_spoon-river-anthology",
  "file": "spoon-river-anthology.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://web.archive.org/web/20080723131115/http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/originalOrder/",
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 34,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 60,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I was among multitudes of children",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dancing at the foot of a mountain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A breeze blew out of the east and swept them as leaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Driving some up the slopes.⁠ ⁠… All was changed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here were flying lights, and mystic moons, and dream-music.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cloud fell upon us. When it lifted all was changed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was now amid multitudes who were wrangling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then a figure in shimmering gold, and one with a trumpet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one with a sceptre stood before me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They mocked me and danced a rigadoon and vanished.⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All was changed again. Out of a bower of poppies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman bared her breasts and lifted her open mouth to mine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I kissed her. The taste of her lips was like salt.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She left blood on my lips. I fell exhausted.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I arose and ascended higher, but a mist as from an iceberg",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clouded my steps. I was cold and in pain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then the sun streamed on me again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I saw the mists below me hiding all below them.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, bent over my staff, knew myself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silhouetted against the snow. And above me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was the soundless air, pierced by a cone of ice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over which hung a solitary star!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A shudder of ecstasy, a shudder of fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran through me. But I could not return to the slopes⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, I wished not to return.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the spent waves of the symphony of freedom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lapped the ethereal cliffs about me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore I climbed to the pinnacle.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I flung away my staff.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I touched that star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With my outstretched hand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I vanished utterly.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the mountain delivers to Infinite Truth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whosoever touches the star!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}