{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/creation",
 "title": "Creation",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Earth, adore creative power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That made and gave to man as dower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This world of beauty rare,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With hills and vales of verdant green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With rills and brooks of crystal sheen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lovely beyond compare.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Sun, bright ruler of the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When first thy power thou did’st display,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth must have shrank in fear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When like a meteor burst thy light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turning to day the long, long night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With radiance wondrous fair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou Moon, pale sister of the Sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he his daily work has done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou comest forth a queen;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A queen in silvery robe adorned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With tiara of jewels formed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of starry orbs unseen.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye twinkling stars of milder light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though now ye gleam like sapphires bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across yon azure dome,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The day will dawn, that last dread day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When from yon heaven you’ll fall away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And man to Judgment come.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thunder and Lightnings burst and gleam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Frightful and fierce to us they seem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rending the darkened sky.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like giants tread the thunder’s peal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vivid lightnings swiftly steal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And men in terror fly.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O filmy clouds, of purest white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With robes of gossamer cased in white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye floating waters pure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes to burst in cooling showers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes to deluge wintry hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With your relentless pour.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou beauteous Rainbow bursting forth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With varied hues encircling earth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sign to Noah made.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I place amid the Clouds my Bow”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show that I will nevermore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deluge with angry flood.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mountains and Hills whose snow capped tops",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vast horizon overlooks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pyramids strong and sure;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor lightnings fierce nor earthquake shock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can ever sway, for firm as rock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye ever will endure.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou Ocean vast, oftimes thy breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is calm and still as if at rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like one in quiet sleep;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But soon in anger thou may’st roar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And madly toss from shore to shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And human harvest reap.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fountains and Rivulets so clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That gush amid the valleys fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With soft and mellow ring;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As coming forth from glade and wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your babblings whisper “God is good,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye make the vales to sing.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now when all nature swells the song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When beast and birds the strain prolong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall man from praise refrain?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then would the rocks and hills proclaim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All nature crying out for shame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They who their Maker’s image wear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should shout and sing till rent the air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With rhapsodies sublime.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}