{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/history",
 "title": "History",
 "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": 21,
 "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": 117,
  "n_stanzas": 18,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    11
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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    14
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    16,
    18
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A wind might blow a lotus petal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "over the pyramids⁠—but not this wind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Summer is a dried leaf.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Leaves stir this way then that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on the baked asphalt, the wheels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of motor cars rush over them,⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "gas smells mingle with leaf smells.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, Sunday, day of worship!!!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The steps to the museum are high.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worshippers pass in and out.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nobody comes here today.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I come here to mingle faiance dug",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "from the tomb, turquoise colored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "necklaces and belched wind from the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "stomach; delicately veined basins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of agate, cracked and discolored and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the stink of stale urine!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Enter! Elbow in at the door.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men? Women?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Simpering, clay fetish-faces counting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "through the turnstile.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah!",
    "indent": 9
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This sarcophagus contained the body",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of Uresh-Nai, priestess to the goddess Mut,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mother of All⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Run your finger against this edge!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—here went the chisel!⁠—and think",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of an arrogance endured six thousand years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "without a flaw!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But love is an oil to embalm the body.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love is a packet of spices, a strong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "smelling liquid to be squirted into",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the thigh. No?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love rubbed on a bald head will make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hair⁠—and after? Love is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a lice comber!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gnats on dung!",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The chisel is in your hand, the block",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "is before you, cut as I shall dictate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "this is the coffin of Uresh-Nai,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "priestess to the sky goddess,⁠—built",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to endure forever!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carve the inside",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "with the image of my death in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "little lines of figures three fingers high.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Put a lid on it cut with Mut bending over",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the earth, for my headpiece, and in the year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to be chosen I will rouse, the lid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "shall be lifted and I will walk about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the temple where they have rested me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and eat the air of the place:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah⁠—these walls are high! This",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "is in keeping.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The priestess has passed into her tomb.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stone has taken up her spirit!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Granite over flesh: who will deny",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "its advantages?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your death?⁠—water",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "spilled upon the ground⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "though water will mount again into rose-leaves⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but you?⁠—would hold life still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "even as a memory, when it is over.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Benevolence is rare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Climb about this sarcophagus, read",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "what is writ for you in these figures,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hard as the granite that has held them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with so soft a hand the while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "your own flesh has been fifty times",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "through the guts of oxen,⁠—read!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The rose-tree will have its donor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "even though he give stingily.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gift of some endures",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "ten years, the gift of some twenty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and the gift of some for the time a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "great house rots and is torn down.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some give for a thousand years to men of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "one face, some for a thousand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to all men and some few to all men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "while granite holds an edge against",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the weather.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Judge then of love!”",
    "indent": 5
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My flesh is turned to stone. I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "have endured my summer. The flurry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of falling petals is ended. Lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the finger upon this granite. I was",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "well desired and fully caressed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "by many lovers but my flesh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "withered swiftly and my heart was",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "never satisfied. Lay your hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "upon the granite as a lover lays his",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hand upon the thigh and upon the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "round breasts of her who is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "beside him, for now I will not wither,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "now I have thrown off secrecy, now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have walked naked into the street,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "now I have scattered my heavy beauty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in the open market.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here I am with head high and a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "burning heart eagerly awaiting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "your caresses, whoever it may be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for granite is not harder than",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "my love is open, runs loose among you!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I arrogant against death! I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "who have endured! I worn against",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the years!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But it is five o’clock. Come!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life is good⁠—enjoy it!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A walk in the park while the day lasts.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will go with you. Look! this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "northern scenery is not the Nile, but⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "these benches⁠—the yellow and purple dusk⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the moon there⁠—these tired people⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the lights on the water!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Are not these Jews and⁠—Ethiopians?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The world is young, surely! Young",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and colored like⁠—a girl that has come upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a lover! Will that do?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}