{
 "id": "john-donne/a-lecture-upon-the-shadow",
 "title": "A Lecture Upon the Shadow",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Donne",
 "poet_slug": "john-donne",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death",
 "book_slug": "poems-1635",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Songs and Sonnets",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1635,
  "venue": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1635)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_poems-_donne-john-poems-by-j_1635"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-donne_poetry",
  "file": "songs-and-sonnets.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie00chamgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie01chamgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Stand still, and I will read to thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lecture, Love, in Love’s philosophy.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These three hours that we have spent,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking here, two shadows went",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Along with us, which we ourselves produced.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, now the sun is just above our head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We do those shadows tread,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And to brave clearness all things are reduced.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "So whilst our infant loves did grow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disguises did, and shadows, flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From us and our cares; but now ’tis not so.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That love has not attain’d the highest degree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is still diligent lest others see.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Except our loves at this noon stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We shall new shadows make the other way.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the first were made to blind",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Others, these which come behind",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Will work upon ourselves, and blind our eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If our loves faint, and westwardly decline,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me thou, falsely, thine",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I to thee mine actions shall disguise.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The morning shadows wear away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But these grow longer all the day;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But O! love’s day is short, if love decay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love is a growing, or full constant light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his short minute, after noon, is night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}