{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/maiden-and-river",
 "title": "Maiden and River",
 "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": 10,
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "River, why in ceaseless flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must you ripple to and fro?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stop a while.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lonely on thy bank I stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On your shining, pebbly strand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Canst thou not a moment stay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the long, long summer day?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stop a while.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Child of earth dost thou not know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ne’er can cease my endless flow?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must go.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Onward till I reach my outlet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out beyond the golden sunset,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek not then to stay my flowing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Onward still I must be going",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my goal.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "River, when the storms are raging,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wind and rain a warfare waging,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do you fear?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When thy waves with whitened crest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toss around in wild unrest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth thy bosom shake with fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trembling, lest thy end is near?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say, O! say.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Child, my race will ne’er be run",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not till yonder blazing sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fades away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Look t’wards the horizon’s crest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See the mighty Ocean’s breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now its billowy waves are still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He who says it is My will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keepeth me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "River, should’st thou chance to see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On thy journey through the lea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Snow white sail?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Reaching out towards the clouds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quivering with its massive shrouds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Touch it gently with thy arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shield it safe from rude alarms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Child of earth hast thou not heard?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That He knows of beast and bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Can He not then bring to thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Safe from o’er the murmuring sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mortal child O! ne’er despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ship ahoy!” may greet thy ear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon, ay soon.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "River, then glide sweetly on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till thy goal is safely won,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till at last",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou dost hear like thunder roar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breaking from the golden shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Awful words from sacred lore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time for thee shall be no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "River, farewell.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}