{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/gulls",
 "title": "Gulls",
 "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": 5,
 "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": 27,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 58,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My townspeople, beyond in the great world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "are many with whom it were far more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "profitable for me to live than here with you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These whirr about me calling, calling!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and for my own part I answer them, loud as I can,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but they, being free, pass!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I remain! Therefore, listen!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For you will not soon have another singer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "First I say this: you have seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the strange birds, have you not, that sometimes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rest upon our river in winter?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let them cause you to think well then of the storms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that drive many to shelter. These things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "do not happen without reason.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the next thing I say is this:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw an eagle once circling against the clouds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "over one of our principal churches⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Easter, it was⁠—a beautiful day!⁠—:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "three gulls came from above the river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and crossed slowly seaward!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, I know you have your own hymns, I have heard them⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and because I knew they invoked some great protector",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could not be angry with you, no matter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "how much they outraged true music⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You see, it is not necessary for us to leap at each other,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and, as I told you, in the end",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the gulls moved seaward very quietly.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}