{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/lotus-leaves",
 "title": "Lotus Leaves",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "… νεμεσσῶμαί γε μὲν οὐδέν / κλαίειν ὅς κε θάνῃσι βροτῶν καὶ πότμον ἐπίσπῃ, / τοῦτό νυ καὶ γέρας οἶον ὀϊζυροῖσι βροτοῖσι / κείρασθαί τε κόμην βαλέειν τ’ ἀπὸ δάκρυ παρειῶν.",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1877,
  "venue": "The Irish Monthly 5, no. 44 (February 1877), pp. 133–135",
  "note": "Mason records that the verses printed under this title in the collected editions, and followed here, are sections I, IV and V of the whole magazine poem, and points the reader from it to his notes on “La Fuite de la Lune” and “Le Réveillon”, both of which are in Poems (1881). Stuart Mason, A Bibliography of the Poems of Oscar Wilde (London, 1907), is the authority for this printing.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/abibliographypo00wildgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057",
   "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": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 76,
  "n_stanzas": 19,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    9
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    9,
    16
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    16,
    19
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There is no peace beneath the noon⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! in those meadows is there peace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where, girdled with a silver fleece,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As a bright shepherd, strays the moon?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Queen of the gardens of the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where stars like lilies, white and fair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shine through the mists of frosty air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, tarry, for the dawn is nigh!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, tarry, for the envious day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stretches long hands to catch thy feet.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! but thou art overfleet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! I know thou wilt not stay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eastward the dawn has broken red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The circling mists and shadows flee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Aurora rises from the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And leaves the crocus-flowered bed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eastward the silver arrows fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Splintering the veil of holy night:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And a long wave of yellow light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Breaks silently on tower and hall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And speeding wide across the wold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wakes into flight some fluttering bird;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the chestnut tops are stirred,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the branches streaked with gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To outer senses there is peace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A dream-like peace on either hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep silence in the shadowy land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep silence where the shadows cease,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Save for a cry that echoes shrill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From some lone bird disconsolate;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A curlew calling to its mate;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The answer from the distant hill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And, herald of my love to Him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, waiting for the dawn, doth lie,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The orbèd maiden leaves the sky,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the white firs grow more dim.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up sprang the sun to run his race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The breeze blew fair on meadow and lea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the west I seemed to see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The likeness of a human face.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A linnet on the hawthorn spray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang of the glories of the spring,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And made the flow’ring copses ring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With gladness for the new-born day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A lark from out the grass I trod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flew wildly, and was lost to view",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the great seamless veil of blue",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That hangs before the face of God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The willow whispered overhead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That death is but a newer life",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And that with idle words of strife",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We bring dishonour on the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I took a branch from off the tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hawthorn branches drenched with dew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I bound them with a sprig of yew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And made a garland fair to see.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I laid the flowers where He lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Warm leaves and flowers on the stones):",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What joy I had to sit alone",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till evening broke on tired eyes:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till all the shifting clouds had spun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A robe of gold for God to wear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And into seas of purple air",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sank the bright galley of the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I be gladdened for the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let my inner heart be stirred",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By murmuring tree or song of bird,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sorrow at the wild winds’ play?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not so, such idle dreams belong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To souls of lesser depth than mine;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I feel that I am half divine;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know that I am great and strong.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know that every forest tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By labour rises from the root;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know that none shall gather fruit",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By sailing on the barren sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}