{
 "id": "voltairine-de-cleyre/optimism",
 "title": "Optimism",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Voltairine de Cleyre",
 "poet_slug": "voltairine-de-cleyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre",
 "book_slug": "selected-works",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 7,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1914,
  "venue": "Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre (1914)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/selectedworksvo01havegoog",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43098"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/voltairine-de-cleyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43098",
   "https://archive.org/details/selectedworksvo01havegoog",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-collected-poems",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Free_Thought_Magazine/KNOMrVNM4CgC",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/711CAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/6qzQAAAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Worm_Turns/wslHAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-a-new-hope",
   "https://archive.org/details/BostonInvestigator_1893-03-15"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 63,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There’s a love supreme in the great hereafter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The buds of earth are blooms in heaven;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The smiles of the world are ripples of laughter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When back to its Aidenn the soul is given:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the tears of the world, though long in flowing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Water the fields of the by-and-by;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They fall as dews on the sweet grass growing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the fountains of sorrow and grief run dry.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though clouds hang over the furrows now sowing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a harvest sun-wreath in the After-sky!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No love is wasted, no heart beats vainly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a vast perfection beyond the grave;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the bays of heaven the stars shine plainly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars lying dim on the brow of the wave.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the lights of our loves, though they flicker and wane, they",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall shine all undimmed in the ether-nave.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the altars of God are lit with souls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fanned to flaming with love where the star-wind rolls.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}