{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/virtue",
 "title": "Virtue",
 "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": 27,
 "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": 34,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Now? Why⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "whirl-pools of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "orange and purple flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "feather twists of chrome",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on a green ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "funneling down upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the steaming phallus-head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of the mad sun himself⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "blackened crimson!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now?",
    "indent": 9
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "it is the smile of her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the smell of her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the vulgar inviting mouth of her!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is⁠—Oh, nothing new",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "nothing that lasts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "an eternity, nothing worth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "putting out to interest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "nothing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "but the fixing of an eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "concretely upon emptiness!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come! here are⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "cross-eyed men, a boy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with a patch, men walking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in their shirts, men in hats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "dark men, a pale man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with little black moustaches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and a dirty white coat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "fat men with pudgy faces,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "thin faces, crooked faces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "slit eyes, grey eyes, black eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "old men with dirty beards,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "men in vests with",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "gold watch chains. Come!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}