{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/sen-artysty",
 "title": "Sen Artysty",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Or, The Artist’s Dream / From the Polish of Madame Helena Modjeska",
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1880,
  "venue": "The Green Room: Routledge's Christmas Annual for 1880, ed. Clement Scott",
  "note": "A translation from Helena Modjeska. Mason gives the Green Room annual for 1880 as the printing the collected editions reprint. 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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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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": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 98,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
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  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I too have had my dreams: ay, indeed known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crowded visions of a fiery youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which haunt me still.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Methought that once I lay",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Within some garden close, what time the Spring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breaks like a bird from Winter, and the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is sapphire-vaulted. The pure air was soft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the deep grass I lay on soft as air.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strange and secret life of the young trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swelled in the green and tender bark, or burst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To buds of sheathèd emerald; violets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peered from their nooks of hiding, half afraid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their own loveliness; the vermeil rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Opened its heart, and the bright star-flower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shone like a star of morning. Butterflies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In painted liveries of brown and gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Took the shy bluebells as their pavilions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seats of pleasaunce; overhead a bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made snow of all the blossoms as it flew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To charm the woods with singing: the whole world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed waking to delight! And yet⁠—and yet⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul was filled with leaden heaviness:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had no joy in Nature; what to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ambition’s slave, was crimson-stainèd rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the gold-sceptred crocus? The bright bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang out of tune for me, and the sweet flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed but a pageant, and an unreal show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That mocked my heart; for, like the fabled snake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stings itself to anguish, so I lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Self-tortured, self-tormented. The day crept",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unheeded on the dial, till the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dropt, purple-sailed, into the gorgeous East,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When, from the fiery heart of that great orb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came One whose shape of beauty far outshone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The most bright vision of this common earth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girt was she in a robe more white than flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or furnace-heated brass; upon her head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She bare a laurel crown, and, like a star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That falls from the high heaven suddenly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passed to my side. Then kneeling low, I cried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O much-desired! O long-waited for!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immortal Glory! Great world-conqueror!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, let me not die crownless; once, at least,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let thine imperial laurels bind my brows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ignoble else. Once let the clarion note",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trump of loud ambition sound my name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for the rest I care not.” Then to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In gentle voice, the angel made reply:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Child, ignorant of the true happiness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor knowing life’s best wisdom, thou wert made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For light and love and laughter, not to waste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy youth in shooting arrows at the sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or nurturing that ambition in thy soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose deadly poison will infect thy heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marring all joy and gladness! Tarry here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the sweet confines of this garden-close",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose level meads and glades delectable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invite for pleasure; the wild bird that wakes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These silent dells with sudden melody",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be thy playmate; and each flower that blows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall twine itself unbidden in thy hair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Garland more meet for thee than the dread weight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Glory’s laurel wreath.” “Ah! fruitless gifts,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I cried, unheeding of her prudent word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Are all such mortal flowers, whose brief lives",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are bounded by the dawn and setting sun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The anger of the noon can wound the rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rain rob the crocus of its gold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thine immortal coronal of Fame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy crown of deathless laurel, this alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Age cannot harm, nor winter’s icy tooth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pierce to its hurt, nor common things profane.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No answer made the angel, but her face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dimmed with the mists of pity. Then methought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That from mine eyes, wherein ambition’s torch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burned with its latest and most ardent flame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flashed forth two level beams of straitened light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath whose fulgent fires the laurel crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twisted and curled, as when the Sirian star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Withers the ripening corn, and one pale leaf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell on my brow; and I leapt up and felt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty pulse of Fame, and heard far off",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sound of many nations praising me!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One fiery-coloured moment of great life!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then⁠—how barren was the nations’ praise!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How vain the trump of Glory! Bitter thorns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were in that laurel leaf, whose toothèd barbs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burned and bit deep till fire and red flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed to feed full upon my brain, and make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The garden a bare desert. With wild hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I strove to tear it from my bleeding brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all in vain; and with a dolorous cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That paled the lingering stars before their time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I waked at last, and saw the timorous dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peer with grey face into my darkened room,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And would have deemed it a mere idle dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But for this restless pain that gnaws my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the red wounds of thorns upon my brow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}