{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-a-gentleman-and-lady-on-the-death-of-the-ladys-brother-and-sister-a",
 "title": "To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady’s Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name of Avis, Aged One Year",
 "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": 27,
 "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": 34,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "On Death’s domain intent I fix my eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where human nature in vast ruin lies:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With pensive mind I search the drear abode,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the great conqu’ror has his spoils bestow’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There where the offspring of six thousand years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In endless numbers to my view appears:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nations mix with their primeval dust:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Insatiate still he gluts the ample tomb;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His is the present, his the age to come.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See here a brother, here a sister spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a sweet daughter mingled with the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And let the fountain of your tears be dry’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your pains they witness, but they can no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While Death reigns tyrant o’er this mortal shore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The glowing stars and silver queen of light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At last must perish in the gloom of night:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resign thy friends to that Almighty hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which gave them life, and bow to his command;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine Avis give without a murm’ring heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though half thy soul be fated to depart.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To shining guards consign thine infant care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To waft triumphant through the seas of air:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her soul enlarg’d to heav’nly pleasure springs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She feeds on truth and uncreated things.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Methinks I hear her in the realms above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leaning forward with a filial love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invite you there to share immortal bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unknown, untasted in a state like this.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With tow’ring hopes, and growing grace arise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seek beatitude beyond the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}