{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/the-ordeal",
 "title": "The Ordeal",
 "poet": "William Carlos Williams",
 "poet_slug": "william-carlos-williams",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Tempers",
 "book_slug": "the-tempers",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 11,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1913,
  "venue": "The Tempers (1913)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/temperscarlos00willrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31878"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/william-carlos-williams_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": {
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  "n_stanzas": 3,
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  "longest_line_chars": 45,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Crimson salamander,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Because of love’s whim",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "sacred!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the winding flame",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Predestined to disman him",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And bring our fellow home to us again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swim in with watery fang,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Gnaw out and drown",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The fire roots that circle him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the Hell-flower dies down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he comes home again.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Aye, bring him home,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "O crimson salamander,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That I may see he is unchanged with burning⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then have your will with him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O crimson salamander.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}