{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/the-past",
 "title": "The Past",
 "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": 43,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The Past, it is fraught with many a feeling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of pleasure, of sadness, of joy, and of pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And ’tis sweet of an eve when dewdrops are falling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To reflect on the days that can ne’er come again.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Past, it is pleasant! Ah, memory recalls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The period of childhood, when joyous and free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With innocence crowned, in purity robed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We revelled in gladness and sported in glee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Past, it is saddening! full many a loved one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That joined in each pleasure, partook of each pain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have passed on before, to the spirit land flown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left us below, till their prize we attain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Past’s irrevocable! every word we’ve spoken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or action committed, been stamp’d with its seal",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Immortal, enduring, ’twill stand sure forever,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As no time can efface, nor effulgence reveal.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, then, should the Present be valued and used",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a boon from the Author and Giver of gifts;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That so, when ’tis past, we could always enjoy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pleasant assurance of its being well spent.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}