{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/nobodys-lookin-but-de-owl-and-de-moon",
 "title": "Nobody’s Lookin’ but de Owl and de Moon",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Fifty Years & Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "fifty-years-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Fifty Years & Other Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-weldon-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_the_National_Association_for_the_Adv/AAs-AQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884",
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-14"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "De river is a-glistenin’ in de moonlight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "De owl is set’n high up in de tree;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "De little stars am twinklin’ wid a sof’ light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "De night seems only jes fu’ you an’ me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thoo de trees de breezes am a-sighin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathin’ out a sort o’ lover’s croon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Der’s nobody lookin’ or a-spyin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nobody but de owl an’ de moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nobody’s lookin’ but de owl an’ de moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de night is balmy; fu’ de month is June;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come den, Honey, won’t you? Come to meet me soon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wile nobody’s lookin’ but de owl an’ de moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I feel so kinder lonely all de daytime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems I raly don’t know what to do;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I jes keep sort a-longin’ fu’ de night-time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Cause den I know dat I can be wid you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de thought jes sets my brain a-swayin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ my heart a-beatin’ to a tune;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, de owl won’t tell w’at we’s a-sayin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ cose you know we kin trus’ de moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}