{
 "id": "voltairine-de-cleyre/the-burial-of-my-past-self",
 "title": "The Burial of My Past Self",
 "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": 1,
 "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": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor Heart, so weary with thy bitter grief!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So thou art dead at last, silent and chill!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The longed-for death-dart came to thy relief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there thou liest, Heart, forever still.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dead eyes, pain-pressed beneath their black-fringed pall!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dead cheeks, dark-furrowed with so many tears!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So thou art passed far, far beyond recall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all thy hopes are past, and all thy fears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy lips are closed at length in the long peace!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale lips! so long they have thy woe repressed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They seem even now when life has run its lease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All dumbly pitiful in their mournful rest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now I lay thee in thy silent tomb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Printing thy brow with one last solemn kiss;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Laying upon thee one fair lily bloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A symbol of thy rest;⁠—oh, rest is bliss.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No, Heart, I would not call thee back again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, no; too much of suffering hast thou known;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But yet, but yet, it was not all in vain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy unseen tears, thy solitary moan!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For out of sorrow joy comes uppermost;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where breaks the thunder soon the sky smiles blue;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A better love replaces what is lost,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And phantom sunlight pales before the true!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The seed must burst before the germ unfolds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars must fade before the morning wakes;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Down in her depths the mine the diamond holds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A new heart pulses when the old heart breaks.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now, Humanity, I turn to you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I consecrate my service to the world!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Perish the old love, welcome to the new⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broad as the space-aisles where the stars are whirled!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}