{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/magnolia",
 "title": "Magnolia",
 "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": 17,
 "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": 58,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Magnolia! “Pale city of the dead,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adown thy gravelled walks I tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy marble pillars looming high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy polished shafts around me lie.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With soft, mild rays, the winter sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy tortuous pathways doth illume,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weeping-willow droops its head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To crown the “City of the Dead.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On every side death’s tracks I see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His footsteps grim encompass me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The high-born here, the lowly there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The proud man there, the humble here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rich has left his golden hoard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more he sits at festive board,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He could not bribe relentless death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all his garnered stores of wealth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here lies a maiden spotless fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose claim on life for many a year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed sure. But the grim Reaper smiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bending, claimed her for his child.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So lovingly they made her bed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tenderly these garlands spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright emblems of a stricken flower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now blooming in a sunnier bower.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here an infant’s grave I see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere sin could stain its purity,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It plumed its wings and upward soared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To live forever with its God.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though fair the earth, it would not stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Much fairer still the land away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Restrain me not, for I would go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where crystal fountains endless flow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With slow, sad steps I press me on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a majestic tower of stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That tells me they who sleep around",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had for their country’s weal laid down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their lives. Ah! many a widowed heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath bent and broke with sorrow’s dart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him who now beneath the sod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yielded his spirit to his God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And many a youth with trappings gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid martial music liveliest, lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more in life returned to bless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their loved ones with a fond caress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But laid them down to their last sleep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In stranger land. Now angels keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A loving vigil o’er each grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bending branches o’er them wave.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "City of Shadows! fondly keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loved who in thy bosom sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shielded from every earthly care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They rest secure and free from fear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let grasses green and flow’rets bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Always illume thy paths with light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till from the heavens loud and clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resounds the invitation dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Come up and meet me in the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My people.”",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}