{
 "id": "langston-hughes/the-last-feast-of-belshazzar",
 "title": "The Last Feast of Belshazzar",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Langston Hughes",
 "poet_slug": "langston-hughes",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1923,
  "venue": "The Crisis (August 1923)",
  "note": "Located in the bound Crisis volume 25–26 on disk (Archive.org crisis2526dubo): one of eight poems printed under the heading “Poems / Langston Hughes” on page 162 of the issue whose masthead reads Vol. 26 No. 4, August 1923, Whole No. 154. The August contents page lists the group as “Poems. Langston Hughes 162”.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2526dubo"
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 },
 "source": {
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001021002",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-fine-clothes-to-the-jew-1927-full-text.1",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003138045",
   "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse",
   "http://childlit.unl.edu/topics/edi.brownies.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/the-brownies-book",
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2324dubo",
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2526dubo",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000502434",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1926-10_32_6",
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   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_the-crisis_1930-07_37_7",
   "https://archive.org/details/hughes_ny_amsterdam_1923-04-25",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008956003",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006784879",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-03_3_27",
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   "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1928-10-01-001-single",
   "https://archive.org/details/lincoln-university-yearbook-1928",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_vanity-fair_1926-05_26_3",
   "https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsqAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/palms_october_1926",
   "https://archive.org/details/langston_hughes_palms_november_1926",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_poetry_1926-11_29_2",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v02n02-dec-1926-New-Masses",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v03n10-feb-1928-New-Masses",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v06n07-dec-1930-New-Masses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000520354",
   "https://archive.org/details/ebonytopazcollec00unse",
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   "https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes",
   "https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/langston-hughes",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-poems-published-in-the-crisis-1921-1926"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 7,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The jeweled entrails of pomegranates bled on the marble floor.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The jewel-heart of a virgin broke at the golden door.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The laughter of a drunken lord hid the sob of a silken whore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mene,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrote a strange hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mene Tekel Upharsin⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Death stood at the door.",
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   }
  ]
 ]
}