{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/ballet",
 "title": "Ballet",
 "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": 32,
 "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": 51,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 23,
  "max_indent": 5
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Are you not weary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "great gold cross",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "shining in the wind⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "are you not weary",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of seeing the stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "turning over you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "going to his rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and you frozen with",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a great lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that leaves you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rigid as a knight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on a marble coffin?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—and you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "higher, still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "robin,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "untwisting a song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "from the bare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "top-twigs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "are you not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "weary of labor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "even the labor of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a song?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come down⁠—join me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for I am lonely.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "First it will be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a quiet pace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to ease our stiffness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but as the west yellows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "you will be ready!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here in the middle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of the roadway",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "we will fling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "ourselves round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with dust lilies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "till we are bound in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "their twining stems!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We will tear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "their flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with arms flashing!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the astonished stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "push aside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "their curtains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "they will see us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "fall exhausted where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "wheels and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the pounding feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of horses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "will crush forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "our laughter.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}