{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/ave-imperatrix",
 "title": "Ave Imperatrix",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 3,
 "container": "Eleutheria",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1881,
  "venue": "Poems (1881)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1338",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lotus_Leaves",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wasted_Days_(from_a_Picture_Painted_by_Miss_V._T.)",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102953450",
   "https://archive.org/details/ravennarecitedin00wildrich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010824214",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006061074",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100217578",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924013571082",
   "https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18770721-01.2.24"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-19"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 124,
  "n_stanzas": 31,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Set in this stormy Northern sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Queen of these restless fields of tide,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "England! what shall men say of thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before whose feet the worlds divide?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The earth, a brittle globe of glass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies in the hollow of thy hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And through its heart of crystal pass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like shadows through a twilight land,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The spears of crimson-suited war,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The long white-crested waves of fight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the deadly fires which are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The torches of the lords of Night.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The yellow leopards, strained and lean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The treacherous Russian knows so well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With gaping blackened jaws are seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leap through the hail of screaming shell.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The strong sea-lion of England’s wars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath left his sapphire cave of sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To battle with the storm that mars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars of England’s chivalry.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The brazen-throated clarion blows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the Pathan’s reedy fen,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the high steeps of Indian snows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake to the tread of armèd men.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And many an Afghan chief, who lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath his cool pomegranate-trees,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Clutches his sword in fierce surmise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When on the mountain-side he sees",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The fleet-foot Marri scout, who comes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To tell how he hath heard afar",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The measured roll of English drums",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beat at the gates of Kandahar.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For southern wind and east wind meet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where, girt and crowned by sword and fire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "England with bare and bloody feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Climbs the steep road of wide empire.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O lonely Himalayan height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grey pillar of the Indian sky,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where saw’st thou last in clanging flight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our wingèd dogs of Victory?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The almond-groves of Samarkand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bokhara, where red lilies blow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Oxus, by whose yellow sand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grave white-turbaned merchants go:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And on from thence to Ispahan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gilded garden of the sun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whence the long dusty caravan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brings cedar wood and vermilion;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And that dread city of Cabool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set at the mountain’s scarpèd feet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose marble tanks are ever full",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With water for the noonday heat:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where through the narrow straight Bazaar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little maid Circassian",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is led, a present from the Czar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto some old and bearded khan⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here have our wild war-eagles flown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flapped wide wings in fiery fight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the sad dove, that sits alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In England⁠—she hath no delight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In vain the laughing girl will lean",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To greet her love with love-lit eyes:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Down in some treacherous black ravine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clutching his flag, the dead boy lies.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And many a moon and sun will see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lingering wistful children wait",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To climb upon their father’s knee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in each house made desolate",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pale women who have lost their lord",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will kiss the relics of the slain⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some tarnished epaulette⁠—some sword⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poor toys to soothe such anguished pain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For not in quiet English fields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are these, our brothers, lain to rest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where we might deck their broken shields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all the flowers the dead love best.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For some are by the Delhi walls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many in the Afghan land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And many where the Ganges falls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through seven mouths of shifting sand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And some in Russian waters lie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And others in the seas which are",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The portals to the East, or by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wind-swept heights of Trafalgar.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O wandering graves! O restless sleep!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O silence of the sunless day!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O still ravine! O stormy deep!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give up your prey! Give up your prey!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thou whose wounds are never healed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose weary race is never won,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O Cromwell’s England! must thou yield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For every inch of ground a son?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go! crown with thorns thy gold-crowned head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Change thy glad song to song of pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wind and wild wave have got thy dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And will not yield them back again.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wave and wild wind and foreign shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Possess the flower of English land⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lips that thy lips shall kiss no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hands that shall never clasp thy hand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What profit now that we have bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The whole round world with nets of gold,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If hidden in our heart is found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The care that groweth never old?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What profit that our galleys ride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pine-forest-like, on every main?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruin and wreck are at our side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grim warders of the House of pain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where are the brave, the strong, the fleet?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where is our English chivalry?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wild grasses are their burial-sheet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sobbing waves their threnody.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O loved ones lying far away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What word of love can dead lips send!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O wasted dust! O senseless clay!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is this the end! is this the end!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Peace, peace! we wrong the noble dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To vex their solemn slumber so;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though childless, and with thorn-crowned head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the steep road must England go,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet when this fiery web is spun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her watchmen shall descry from far",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The young Republic like a sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise from these crimson seas of war.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}