{
 "id": "william-shakespeare/xxxviii",
 "title": "XXXVIII",
 "poet": "William Shakespeare",
 "poet_slug": "william-shakespeare",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shake-speares Sonnets",
 "book_slug": "sonnets",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 38,
 "container": "Sonnets",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1609,
  "venue": "Shake-speares Sonnets (1609)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100",
   "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q662550"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/william-shakespeare_poetry",
  "file": "sonnets.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004135080"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "How can my Muse want subject to invent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine own sweet argument, too excellent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For every vulgar paper to rehearse?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For who’s so dumb that cannot write to thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thou thyself dost give invention light?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than those old nine which rhymers invocate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eternal numbers to outlive long date.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If my slight Muse do please these curious days,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}