{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/on-virtue",
 "title": "On Virtue",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Phillis Wheatley",
 "poet_slug": "phillis-wheatley",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral",
 "book_slug": "poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1773,
  "venue": "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://github.com/standardebooks/phillis-wheatley_poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/phillis-wheatley_poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral",
  "file": "poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/409",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu273whea",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofphilliswh00whea_1"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-14"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 21,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Thou bright jewel in my aim I strive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I cease to wonder, and no more attempt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine height t’ explore, or fathom thy profound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, O my soul, sink not into despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would now embrace thee, hovers o’er thine head.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fain would the heav’n-born soul with her converse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then seek, then court her for her promis’d bliss.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Auspicious queen, thine heav’nly pinions spread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lead celestial Chastity along;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! now her sacred retinue descends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Array’d in glory from the orbs above.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O leave me not to the false joys of time!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give me an higher appellation still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O thou, enthron’d with Cherubs in the realms of day!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}