{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/apology",
 "title": "Apology",
 "poet": "William Carlos Williams",
 "poet_slug": "william-carlos-williams",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems",
 "book_slug": "al-que-quiere",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51997"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/william-carlos-williams_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31878",
   "https://archive.org/details/temperscarlos00willrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51997",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006060238",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35667",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007676947"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 23,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Why do I write today?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The beauty of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the terrible faces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of our nonentities",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "stirs me to it:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "colored women",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "day workers⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "old and experienced⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "returning home at dusk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in cast off clothing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "faces like",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "old Florentine oak.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Also",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "the set pieces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of your faces stir me⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "leading citizens⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in the same way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}