{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-a-lady-on-the-death-of-her-husband",
 "title": "To a Lady on the Death of Her Husband",
 "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": 10,
 "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": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Grim monarch! see, depriv’d of vital breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A young physician in the dust of death:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dost thou go on incessant to destroy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our griefs to double, and lay waste our joy?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enough thou never yet wast known to say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though millions die, the vassals of thy sway:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor youth, nor science, not the ties of love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ought on earth thy flinty heart can move.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The friend, the spouse from his dire dart to save,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain we ask the sovereign of the grave.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair mourner, there see thy lov’d Leonard laid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And o’er him spread the deep impervious shade;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clos’d are his eyes, and heavy fetters keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His senses bound in never-waking sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till time shall cease, till many a starry world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall fall from heav’n, in dire confusion hurl’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till nature in her final wreck shall lie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her last groan shall rend the azure sky:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not, not till then his active soul shall claim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His body, a divine immortal frame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But see the softly-stealing tears apace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pursue each other down the mourner’s face;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But cease thy tears, bid ev’ry sigh depart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cast the load of anguish from thine heart:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the cold shell of his great soul arise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And look beyond, thou native of the skies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There fix thy view, where fleeter than the wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy Leonard mounts, and leaves the earth behind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thyself prepare to pass the vale of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To join for ever on the hills of light:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thine embrace this joyful spirit moves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee, the partner of his earthly loves;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He welcomes thee to pleasures more refin’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And better suited to th’ immortal mind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}