{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/william-jones",
 "title": "William Jones",
 "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": 219,
 "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": 15,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 60,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Once in a while a curious weed unknown to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Needing a name from my books;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once in a while a letter from Yeomans.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the mussel-shells gathered along the shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes a pearl with a glint like meadow rue:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then betimes a letter from Tyndall in England,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stamped with the stamp of Spoon River.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, lover of Nature, beloved for my love of her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Held such converse afar with the great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who knew her better than I.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, there is neither lesser nor greater,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save as we make her greater and win from her keener delight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With shells from the river cover me, cover me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I lived in wonder, worshipping earth and heaven.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have passed on the march eternal of endless life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}