{
 "id": "edward-thomas/after-you-speak",
 "title": "After You Speak",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 21,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 27,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "After you speak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what you meant",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meet yours that mean⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With your cheeks and hair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Something more wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And far different.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even so the lark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loves dust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nestles in it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The minute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before he must",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soar in lone flight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a black star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He seems⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A mote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of singing dust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Afloat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That dreams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sheds no light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know your lust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}