{
 "id": "maria-lowell/africa",
 "title": "Africa",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Maria Lowell",
 "poet_slug": "maria-lowell",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Maria Lowell",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 3,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "The Poems of Maria Lowell (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/maria-lowell_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/uva-lib:439721",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 117,
  "n_stanzas": 35,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "She sat where the level sands",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent back the sky’s fierce glare;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She folded her mighty hands,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And waited with calm despair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the red sun dropped down the streaming air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her throne was broad and low,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Builded of cinnamon;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Huge ivory, row on row,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Varying its columns dun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Barred with the copper of the setting sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up from the river came",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The low and sullen roar",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of lions, with eyes of flame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That haunted its reedy shore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the neigh of the hippopotamus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trampling the watery floor.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her great dusk face no light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the sunset-glow could take;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark as the primal night",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere over the earth God spake",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It seemed for her a dawn could never break.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She opened her massy lips,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sighed with a dreary sound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As when by the sand’s eclipse",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bewildered men are bound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And like a train of mourners",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The columned winds sweep round.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She said: “My torch at fount of day",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I lit, now smouldering in decay;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through futures vast I grope my way.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I was sole Queen the broad earth through:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My children round my knees upgrew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from my breast sucked Wisdom’s dew.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Day after day to them I hymned;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fresh knowledge still my song o’erbrimmed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fresh knowledge, which no time had dimmed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I sang of Numbers; soon they knew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The spell they wrought, and on the blue",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Foretold the stars in order due;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Of Music; and they fain would rear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Something to tell its influence clear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Uprose my Memnon, with nice ear,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“To wait upon the morning air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the sun rose from his lair",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Swifter, at greet of lutings rare.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I sang of Forces whose great bands",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Could knit together feeble hands",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To uprear Thought’s supreme commands;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then, like broad tents, beside the Nile",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They pitched the Pyramids’ great pile;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where light and shade divided smile;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And on white walls, in stately show,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Did Painting with fair movement go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Leading the long processions slow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“All laws that wondrous Nature taught,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To serve my children’s skill I brought,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And still for fresh devices sought.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“What need to tell? they lapsed away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their great light quenched in twilight gray,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Within their winding tombs they lay;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And centuries went slowly by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And looked into my sleepless eye,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which only turned to see them die.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The winds like mighty spirits came,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Alive and pure and strong as flame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At last to lift me from my shame;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For oft I heard them onward go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Felt in the air their great wings row,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As down they dipped in journeying slow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Their course they steered above my head,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One strong voice to another said⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Why sits she here so drear and dead?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Her kingdom stretches far away;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond the utmost verge of day,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her myriad children dance and play.’",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then throbbed my mother’s heart again,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then knew my pulses finer pain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which wrought like fire within my brain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I sought my young barbarians, where",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A mellower light broods on the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And heavier blooms swing incense rare.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Swart-skinned, crisp-haired, they did not shun",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The burning arrows of the sun;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Erect as palms stood every one.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I said⁠—These shall live out their day",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In song and dance and endless play;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The children of the world are they.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nor need they delve with heavy spade;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their bread, on emerald dishes laid,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sets forth a banquet in each shade.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Only the thoughtful bees shall store",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their honey for them evermore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They shall not learn such toilsome lore;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Their finest skill shall be to snare",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The birds that flaunt along the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And deck them in their feathers rare.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“So centuries went on their way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought fresh generations gay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On my savannahs green to play.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“There came a change. They took my free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My careless ones, and the great sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Blew back their endless sighs to me:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“With earthquake shudderings oft the mould",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would gape; I saw keen spears of gold",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrusting red hearts down, not yet cold",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But throbbing wildly; dreadful groans",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Stole upward through Earth’s ribbed stones",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And crept along through all my zones.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I sought again my desert bare,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But still they followed on the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And still I hear them everywhere.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“So sit I dreary, desolate,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the slow-moving hand of Fate",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall lift me from my sunken state.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her great lips closed upon her moan;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Silently sate she on her throne,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Rigid and black, as carved in stone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}