{
 "id": "georgia-douglas-johnson/why",
 "title": "Why",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Georgia Douglas Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "georgia-douglas-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Bronze: A Book of Verses",
 "book_slug": "bronze",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 46,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1922,
  "venue": "Bronze: A Book of Verses (1922)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bronzebookofvers00john"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/georgia-douglas-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/georgia-douglas-johnson-the-heart-of-a-woman-full-text-1918",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103153234",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/georgia-douglas-johnson-bronze-full-text-1922",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000781515",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/poems-by-georgia-douglas-johnson-in-the-new-negro-1925",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000340210",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/georgia-douglas-johnson-an-autumn-love-cycle-full-text-1928",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102777177",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/georgia-douglas-johnson-poems-published-in-the-crisis-1910-1926",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000502434",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/poems-published-in-the-messenger-magazine",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000056822",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000064962"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The verdure sleeps in winter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Awakes with April rain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sun swings low⁠—’tis night⁠—ascends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lo! ’tis morn again:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The world spins on triumphant",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across a trackless sky,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And man seeks evermore in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The primal reason why.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O whither are we rushing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wherefrom were we torn?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We breathe from out the silences,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And breathless, back are borne.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Deep in the soul are voices",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Returning this reply:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It took a God to make us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only God can answer why!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}