{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/sympathetic-portrait-of-a-child",
 "title": "Sympathetic Portrait of a Child",
 "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": 33,
 "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": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The murderer’s little daughter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "who is barely ten years old",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "jerks her shoulders",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "right and left",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "so as to catch a glimpse of me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "without turning round.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her skinny little arms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "wrap themselves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "this way then that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "reversely about her body!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nervously",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "she crushes her straw hat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "about her eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and tilts her head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to deepen the shadow⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "smiling excitedly!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As best as she can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "she hides herself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in the full sunlight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "her cordy legs writhing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "beneath the little flowered dress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that leaves them bare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "from mid-thigh to ankle⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why has she chosen me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for the knife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that darts along her smile?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}