{
 "id": "maria-lowell/avignon",
 "title": "Avignon",
 "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": 10,
 "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": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 70,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The July day grew to a close, the fret of travel passed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cool and moonlit court-yard of the inn was gained at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where oleanders greeted us between their stately ranks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As pink and proud as if they grew on native Indian banks:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seen from our chamber-window’s ledge, they looked more strangely fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like blossomed baskets, lightly poised upon the summer air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When came the sultry morning sun, I did not care to go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On dusty roads, but stayed to see my oleanders glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within their shadowy oasis;⁠—the pilgrimage was long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Petrarch’s home; hot alien winds dried up his dewy song;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though Laura’s cheek, with centuries sweet, still blushes at his call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her blush was not so bright as yours, my oleanders tall!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And fiercer grew the summer day, while in the court below,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The white-capped peasant-women kept moving to and fro,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With little laughs, and endless talks, whose murmur rose to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the spring-chats of careless birds from blossomed apple-tree;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, hearing it, I blessed the choice that kept me there that day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With my stately oleanders keeping all the world at bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The masonry of Nismes was lost, but still I could not sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Roman work looks sad when we have bidden Rome goodbye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prison and castle of the Pope stood close upon the hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But of castle and of prison my soul had had its fill;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I knew that blood-stains, old and dark, clung to the inner wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And blessed the lovely, living bloom of oleanders tall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou pleasant, pleasant court-yard, I make to thee a crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gems from Murray’s casket, then shut the red lid down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contented if I still may keep, beneath a sky of blue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tender treasure of the day when first my spirit knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy quiet, and thy shadow, and thy bird-like gossip, all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enclosed within that sunset wreath of oleanders tall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}