{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/the-wanderer",
 "title": "The Wanderer",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "A Rococo Study",
 "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": 46,
 "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": 327,
  "n_stanzas": 22,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 69,
  "max_indent": 8
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Advent",
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Clarity",
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Broadway",
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Paterson—The Strike",
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    14
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Abroad",
   "stanza_range": [
    14,
    16
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "Soothsay",
   "stanza_range": [
    16,
    17
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": null,
   "title": "St. James’ Grove",
   "stanza_range": [
    17,
    22
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Even in the time when as yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had no certain knowledge of her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She sprang from the nest, a young crow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose first flight circled the forest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know now how then she showed me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her mind, reaching out to the horizon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She close above the tree tops.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw her eyes straining at the new distance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as the woods fell from her flying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Likewise they fell from me as I followed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So that I strongly guessed all that I must put from me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To come through ready for the high courses.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But one day, crossing the ferry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the great towers of Manhattan before me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out at the prow with the sea wind blowing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had been wearying many questions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which she had put on to try me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How shall I be a mirror to this modernity?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When lo! in a rush, dragging",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A blunt boat on the yielding river⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suddenly I saw her! And she waved me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the white wet in midst of her playing!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She cried me, “Haia! Here I am, son!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See how strong my little finger is!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can I not swim well?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can fly too!” And with that a great sea-gull",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went to the left, vanishing with a wild cry⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in my mind all the persons of godhead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Followed after.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Come!” cried my mind and by her might",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That was upon us we flew above the river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeking her, grey gulls among the white⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the air speaking as she had willed it:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I am given,” cried I, “now I know it!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know now all my time is forespent!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For me one face is all the world!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I have seen her at last, this day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whom age in age is united⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indifferent, out of sequence, marvelously!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saving alone that one sequence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is the beauty of all the world, for surely",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Either there in the rolling smoke spheres below us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or here with us in the air intercircling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Certainly somewhere here about us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know she is revealing these things!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And as gulls we flew and with soft cries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We seemed to speak, flying, “It is she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty, recreating the whole world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This the first day of wonders!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She is attiring herself before me⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taking shape before me for worship,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A red leaf that falls upon a stone!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is she of whom I told you, old",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgiveless, unreconcilable;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That high wanderer of by-ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking imperious in beggary!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At her throat is loose gold, a single chain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From among many, on her bent fingers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are rings from which the stones are fallen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her wrists wear a diminished state, her ankles",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are bare! Toward the river! Is it she there?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we swerved clamorously downward⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I will take my peace in her henceforth!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was then she struck⁠—from behind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In mid air, as with the edge of a great wing!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And instantly down the mists of my eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There came crowds walking⁠—men as visions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With expressionless, animate faces;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Empty men with shell-thin bodies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jostling close above the gutter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hasting⁠—nowhere! And then for the first time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I really saw her, really scented the sweat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her presence and⁠—fell back sickened!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ominous, old, painted⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With bright lips, and lewd Jew’s eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her might strapped in by a corset",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give her age youth, perfect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her will to be young she had covered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The godhead to go beside me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silent, her voice entered at my eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my astonished thought followed her easily:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Well, do their eyes shine, do their clothes fit?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These live I tell you! Old men with red cheeks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young men in gay suits! See them!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dogged, quivering, impassive⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well⁠—are these the ones you envied?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At which I answered her, “Marvelous old queen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grant me power to catch something of this day’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Air and sun into your service!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That these toilers after peace and after pleasure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May turn to you, worshippers at all hours!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she sniffed upon the words warily⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet I persisted, watching for an answer:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To you, horrible old woman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who know all fires out of the bodies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all men that walk with lust at heart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To you, O mighty, crafty prowler",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the youth of all cities, drunk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the sight of thy archness! All the youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That come to you, you having the knowledge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather than to those uninitiate⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To you, marvelous old queen, give me always",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A new marriage⁠—”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she laughed loudly⁠—",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "“A new grip upon those garments that brushed me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In days gone by on beach, lawn, and in forest!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May I be lifted still, up and out of terror,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up from before the death living around me⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tom up continually and carried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whatever way the head of your whim is,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A burr upon those streaming tatters⁠—”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the night had fallen, she stilled me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And led me away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At the first peep of dawn she roused me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I rose trembling at the change which the night saw!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there, wretchedly brooding in a corner",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From which her old eyes glittered fiercely⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Go!” she said, and I hurried shivering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out into the deserted streets of Paterson.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That night she came again, hovering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In rags within the filmy ceiling⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Great Queen, bless me with thy tatters!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You are blest, go on!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Hot for savagery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sucking the air! I went into the city,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out again, baffled onto the mountain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back into the city!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nowhere",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "The subtle! Everywhere the electric!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“A short bread-line before a hitherto empty tea shop:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No questions⁠—all stood patiently,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dominated by one idea: something",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That carried them as they are always wanting to be carried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘But what is it,’ I asked those nearest me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘This thing heretofore unobtainable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That they seem so clever to have put on now!’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why since I have failed them can it be anything but their own brood?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can it be anything but brutality?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that at least they’re united! That at least",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is their bean soup, their calm bread and a few luxuries!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But in me, more sensitive, marvelous old queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It sank deep into the blood, that I rose upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tense air enjoying the dusty fight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heavy drink were the low, sloping foreheads",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flat skulls with the unkempt black or blond hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ugly legs of the young girls, pistons",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too powerful for delicacy!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The women’s wrists, the men’s arms, red",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Used to heat and cold, to toss quartered beeves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And barrels, and milk-cans, and crates of fruit!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Faces all knotted up like burls on oaks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grasping, fox-snouted, thick-lipped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sagging breasts and protruding stomachs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rasping voices, filthy habits with the hands.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nowhere you! Everywhere the electric!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ugly, venemous, gigantic!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tossing me as a great father his helpless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Infant till it shriek with ecstasy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its eyes roll and its tongue hangs out!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I am at peace again, old queen, I listen clearer now.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Never, even in a dream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have I winged so high nor so well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As with her, she leading me by the hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That first day on the Jersey mountains!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never shall I forget",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The trembling interest with which I heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her voice in a low thunder:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You are safe here. Look child, look open-mouth!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The patch of road between the steep bramble banks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tree in the wind, the white house there, the sky!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak to men of these, concerning me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For never while you permit them to ignore me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In these shall the full of my freed voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come grappling the ear with intent!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never while the air’s clear coolness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is seized to be a coat for pettiness;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never while richness of greenery",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stands a shield for prurient minds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never, permitting these things unchallenged",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall my voice of leaves and varicolored bark come free through!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At which, knowing her solitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shouted over the country below me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Waken! my people, to the boughs green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With ripening fruit within you!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waken to the myriad cinquefoil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the waving grass of your minds!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waken to the silent phoebe nest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the eaves of your spirit!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she, stooping nearer the shifting hills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spoke again. “Look there! See them!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There in the oat field with the horses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See them there! bowed by their passions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crushed down, that had been raised as a roof beam!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weight of the sky is upon them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under which all roof beams crumble.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There is none but the single roof beam:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There is no love bears against the great firefly!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At this I looked up at the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then shouted again with all the might I had.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But my voice was a seed in the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then she, the old one, laughing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seized me and whirling about bore back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the city, upward, still laughing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the great towers stood above the marshland",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wheeling beneath: the little creeks, the mallows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I picked as a boy, the Hackensack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So quiet that seemed so broad formerly:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crawling trains, the cedar swamp on the one side⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All so old, so familiar⁠—so new now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my marvelling eyes as we passed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invisible.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eight days went by, eight days",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comforted by no nights, until finally:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Would you behold yourself old, beloved?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was pierced, yet I consented gladly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I knew it could not be otherwise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she⁠—“Behold yourself old!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sustained in strength, wielding might in gript surges!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not bodying the sun in weak leaps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But holding way over rockish men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fern free fingers on their little crags,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their hollows, the new Atlas, to bear them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For pride and for mockery! Behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yourself old! winding with slow might⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A vine among oaks⁠—to the thin tops:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaving the leafless leaved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing purple clusters! Behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yourself old! birds are behind you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You are the wind coming that stills birds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shakes the leaves in booming polyphony⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slow, winning high way amid the knocking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of boughs, evenly crescendo,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The din and bellow of the male wind!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leap then from forest into foam!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lash about from low into high flames",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tipping sound, the female chorus⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Linking all lions, all twitterings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make them nothing! Behold yourself old!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As I made to answer she continued,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little wistfully yet in a voice clear cut:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Good is my overlip and evil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My underlip to you henceforth:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I have taken your soul between my two hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this shall be as it is spoken.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so it came to that last day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When, she leading by the hand, we went out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Early in the morning, I heavy of heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I knew the novitiate was ended",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ecstasy was over, the life begun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In my woolen shirt and the pale blue necktie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My grandmother gave me, there I went",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the old queen right past the houses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of my friends down the hill to the river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As on any usual day, any errand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone, walking under trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I went with her, she with me in her wild hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Santiago Grove and presently",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She bent forward and knelt by the river,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Passaic, that filthy river.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there dabbling her mad hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She called me close beside her.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Raising the water then in the cupped palm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She bathed our brows wailing and laughing:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“River, we are old, you and I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We are old and by bad luck, beggars.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo, the filth in our hair, our bodies stink!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old friend, here I have brought you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The young soul you long asked of me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stand forth, river, and give me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old friend of my revels!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give me the well-worn spirit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For here I have made a room for it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I will return to you forthwith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The youth you have long asked of me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stand forth, river, and give me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old friend of my revels!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the filthy Passaic consented!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then she, leaping up with a fierce cry:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Enter, youth, into this bulk!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enter, river, into this young man!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then the river began to enter my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eddying back cool and limpid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the crystal beginning of its days.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with the rebound it leaped forward:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Muddy, then black and shrunken",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I felt the utter depth of its rottenness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vile breadth of its degradation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dropped down knowing this was me now.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she lifted me and the water took a new tide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again into the older experiences,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so, backward and forward,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It tortured itself within me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until time had been washed finally under,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the river had found its level",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its last motion had ceased",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I knew all⁠—it became me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I knew this for double certain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there, whitely, I saw myself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being borne off under the water!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could have shouted out in my agony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the sight of myself departing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forever⁠—but I bit back my despair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For she had averted her eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which I knew well what she was thinking⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so the last of me was taken.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then she, “Be mostly silent!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turning to the river, spoke again:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“For him and for me, river, the wandering,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But by you I leave for happiness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep foliage, the thickest beeches⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though elsewhere they are all dying⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tallest oaks and yellow birches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That dip their leaves in you, mourning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As now I dip my hair, immemorial",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of me, immemorial of him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immemorial of these our promises!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here shall be a bird’s paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They sing to you remembering my voice:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here the most secluded spaces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For miles around, hallowed by a stench",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be our joint solitude and temple;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In memory of this clear marriage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the child I have brought you in the late years.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Live, river, live in luxuriance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remembering this our son,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In remembrance of me and my sorrow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And of the new wandering!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}