{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/the-exiles-reverie",
 "title": "The Exile’s Reverie",
 "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": 8,
 "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": 50,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas sunset’s hour, the glorious day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had in its beauty passed away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sun had bathed in golden dyes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This Southern land of sunny skies;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And crimson clouds, like birds of wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did o’er the earth their radiance fling;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While zephyrs sang amid the trees,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And song-birds warbled to the breeze;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For Spring, just bursting into birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had come once more to gladden earth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Near Pensacola’s margin, lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laved by its never ceasing spray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The exile, from his native land",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dweller on a foreign strand.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And as he lay kind thoughts of home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like visions of the past did come;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mem’ry’s mirror pictured clear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The starlight of his boyhood there;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hopes that clustered round his brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shrine at which he loved to bow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He mused aloud, Oh! Italy!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Land of the chivalric, the free!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bruce may of Scotland tune his lyre.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But thee alone, can’st me inspire.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Birthplace of beauty! never more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall I behold thy vine-clad shore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sward where I in childhood play’d⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The haunts deep in the forest shade⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The place where, mould’ring in decay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ashes of a sire lay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why did I leave thee? As spring flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Return no more through summer hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When once they blossom, bear and die,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No more will bloom neath sultry sky;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So heart of man when hopes have fled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And love lies buried with the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No second spring time sends one ray",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To cheer his path through life’s dark day;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Hope’s blossoms like the early dew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once passed away, naught can renew.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still I live on, and oft, at eve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My isolated cot I leave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thence to this lonely nook I hie",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To take a glance at days gone by.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each blue wave hast’ning to its goal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Fit type of the immortal soul)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thrilling accents seems to say",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou’rt nearing fast life’s closing day;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou soon wilt reach thy better home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The home where changes never come.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}