{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/vashti",
 "title": "Vashti",
 "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": 39,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 20,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 77,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I sometimes take you in my dreams to a far-off land I used to know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back in the ages long ago; a land of palms and languid streams.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A land, by night, of jeweled skies, by day, of shores that glistened bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within whose arms, outstretched and white, a sapphire sea lay crescent-wise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where twilight fell like silver floss, where rose the golden moon half-hid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behind a shadowy pyramid; a land beneath the Southern Cross.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And there the days dreamed in their flight, each one a poem chanted through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which at its close was merged into the muted music of the night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And you were a princess in those days. And I⁠—I was your serving lad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But who ever served with heart so glad, or lived so for a word of praise?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And if that word you chanced to speak, how all my senses swayed and reeled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till low beside your feet I kneeled, with happiness o’erwrought and weak.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If, when your golden cup I bore, you deigned to lower your eyes to mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes cold, yet fervid, like the wine, I knew not how to wish for more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I trembled at the thought to dare to gaze upon, to scrutinize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deep-sea mystery of your eyes, the sun-lit splendor of your hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To let my timid glances rest upon you long enough to note",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How fair and slender was your throat, how white the promise of your breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But though I did not dare to chance a lingering look, an open gaze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon your beauty’s blinding rays, I ventured many a stolen glance.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I fancy, too, (but could not state what trick of mind the fancy caused)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At times your eyes upon me paused, and marked my figure lithe and straight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once when my eyes met yours it seemed that in your cheek, despite your pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A flush arose and swiftly died; or was it something that I dreamed?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Within your radiance like the star of morning, there I stood and served,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close by, unheeded, unobserved. You were so near, and, yet, so far.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! just to stretch my hand and touch the musky sandals on your feet!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My breaking heart! of rapture sweet it never could have held so much.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, beauty-haunted memory! Your face so proud, your eyes so calm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your body like a slim young palm, and sinuous as a willow tree.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Caught up beneath your slender arms, and girdled ’round your supple waist,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A robe of curious silk that graced, but only scarce concealed your charms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A golden band about your head, a crimson jewel at your throat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, when the sunlight on it smote, turned to a living heart and bled.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, oh, that mystic bleeding stone, that work of Nature’s magic art,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which mimicked so a wounded heart, could never bleed as did my own!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now after ages long and sad, in this stern land we meet anew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more a princess proud are you, and I⁠—I am no serving lad.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And yet, dividing us, I meet a wider gulf than that which stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between a princess of the blood and him who served low at her feet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}