{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/the-white-witch",
 "title": "The White Witch",
 "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": 11,
 "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": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O brothers mine, take care! Take care!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The great white witch rides out to-night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trust not your prowess nor your strength,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your only safety lies in flight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For in her glance there is a snare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her smile there is a blight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The great white witch you have not seen?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, younger brothers mine, forsooth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like nursery children you have looked",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ancient hag and snaggle-tooth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But no, not so; the witch appears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all the glowing charms of youth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her lips are like carnations, red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her face like new-born lilies, fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her eyes like ocean waters, blue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She moves with subtle grace and air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all about her head there floats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The golden glory of her hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But though she always thus appears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In form of youth and mood of mirth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unnumbered centuries are hers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The infant planets saw her birth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The child of throbbing Life is she,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twin sister to the greedy earth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And back behind those smiling lips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And down within those laughing eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And underneath the soft caress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hand and voice and purring sighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shadow of the panther lurks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spirit of the vampire lies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For I have seen the great white witch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she has led me to her lair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I have kissed her red, red lips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cruel face so white and fair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around me she has twined her arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bound me with her yellow hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I felt those red lips burn and sear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My body like a living coal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obeyed the power of those eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the needle trembles to the pole;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And did not care although I felt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strength go ebbing from my soul.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! she has seen your strong young limbs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heard your laughter loud and gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in your voices she has caught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The echo of a far-off day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When man was closer to the earth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she has marked you for her prey.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She feels the old Antaean strength",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In you, the great dynamic beat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of primal passions, and she sees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In you the last besieged retreat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of love relentless, lusty, fierce,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love pain-ecstatic, cruel-sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, brothers mine, take care! Take care!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The great white witch rides out to-night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O, younger brothers mine, beware!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look not upon her beauty bright;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For in her glance there is a snare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her smile there is a blight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}