{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/dedication-for-a-plot-of-ground",
 "title": "Dedication for a Plot of Ground",
 "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": 44,
 "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This plot of ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "facing the waters of this inlet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "is dedicated to the living presence of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Emily Richardson Wellcome",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "who was born in England; married;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "lost her husband and with",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "her five year old son",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "sailed for New York in a two-master;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "was driven to the Azores;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "ran adrift on Fire Island shoal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "met her second husband",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in a Brooklyn boarding house,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "went with him to Puerto Rico",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "bore three more children, lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "her second husband, lived hard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for eight years in St. Thomas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Puerto Rico, San Domingo, followed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the oldest son to New York,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "lost her daughter, lost her “baby,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "seized the two boys of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the oldest son by the second marriage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "mothered them⁠—they being",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "motherless⁠—fought for them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against the other grandmother",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and the aunts, brought them here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "summer after summer, defended",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "herself here against thieves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "storms, sun, fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against flies, against girls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that came smelling about, against",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "drought, against weeds, storm-tides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "neighbors, weasels that stole her chickens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against the weakness of her own hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against the growing strength of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the boys, against wind, against",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the stones, against trespassers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against rents, against her own mind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She grubbed this earth with her own hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "domineered over this grass plot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "blackguarded her oldest son",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "into buying it, lived here fifteen years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "attained a final loneliness and⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If you can bring nothing to this place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but your carcass, keep out.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}