{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/pastoral-2",
 "title": "Pastoral",
 "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": null,
 "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": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 30,
  "max_indent": 5
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The little sparrows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hop ingenuously",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "about the pavement",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "quarreling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with sharp voices",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "over those things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that interest them.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But we who are wiser",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "shut ourselves in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on either hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and no one knows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "whether we think good",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or evil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meanwhile,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "the old man who goes about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "gathering dog-lime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "walks in the gutter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "without looking up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and his tread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "is more majestic than",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that of the Episcopal minister",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "approaching the pulpit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of a Sunday.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These things",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "astonish me beyond words.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}