{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/pastoral",
 "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": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 32,
  "max_indent": 5
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When I was younger",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "it was plain to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must make something of myself.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Older now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I walk back streets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "admiring the houses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of the very poor:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "roof out of line with sides",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the yards cluttered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with old chicken wire, ashes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "furniture gone wrong;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the fences and outhouses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "built of barrel-staves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and parts of boxes, all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "if I am fortunate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "smeared a bluish green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that properly weathered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "pleases me best",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of all colors.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No one",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "will believe this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of vast import to the nation.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}