{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/if-i-had-wings-my-lady-like-a-dove",
 "title": "If I Had Wings, My Lady, Like a Dove",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished)",
 "book_slug": "poems-hitherto-unpublished",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 26,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1921,
  "venue": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished) (1921)",
  "note": "The volume's title page states that these poems were hitherto unpublished, and no earlier printing of them has been established. The 1921 date is the year of first printing, but not necessarily of this exact copy: the volume states that it is a complimentary edition struck from the same type forms as the Bibliophile Society's edition of the same year.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I should not linger here,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But through the winter air toward my love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fly swift toward my love, my fair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And knew the secrets of the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I should be gone, my lady, to my love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To kiss the sweet disparting of her hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This hour should see my soul at rest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should see me safe, my lady, with my love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To kiss the sweet division of her breast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For all is sweet, my lady, in my love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet hair, sweet breast and sweeter eyes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That draw my soul, my lady, like a dove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawn southward by the shining of the skies;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For all is sweet, my lady, in my love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I could die, my lady, with my love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Die, mouth to mouth, a splendid death,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I should take wing, my lady, like a dove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To spend upon her lips my all of breath,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I could die, my lady, with my love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}