{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/lines-to-florence",
 "title": "Lines to Florence",
 "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": 29,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I am sitting sad and lonely",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I’ve often sat before,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I am musing, fondly musing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of my Florence who pass’d o’er.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass’d into the realms supernal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far ’bove cloud-lands lofty height;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yonder ’mid the fields Elysian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwells my “Flor” ’mong saints of light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas when autumn leaves were falling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas when harvest days had come,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That, King Death, the mighty reaper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came to take my darling home.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the winds were softly sighing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Zephyrs breathing low and deep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lulled to rest by such sweet music,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My bright treasure fell asleep.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Closely clasped to mother’s bosom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the well-nigh bursting breast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay the early stricken floweret,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay the heart so near its rest.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And those little eyes upturning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brimful with their wealth of love,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mutely, though with earnest language,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said, I’m hastening up above.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, ere long, they said my darling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had this earth exchanged for heaven⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She had upward spread her pinions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaving hearts with anguish riven.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes; the autumn’s wind so plaintive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With its music soft and deep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Woo’d my birdie from my bosom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she sweetly fell asleep.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when time with me is over,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When my fleeting years have passed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! I trust once more to greet her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this parting be the last;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So, till then I wait expectant⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, the Master’s time doth “bide”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But to me the hour is precious,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That my little Florence died.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}