{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/25th-anniversary-of-the-old-folks-home",
 "title": "25th Anniversary of the “Old Folks’ Home”",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons (Philadelphia, 1889)",
  "note": "Located in the scan on disk, printed under this title after the physician’s report and signed “—Mrs. F. E. W. Harper.”. The report’s own title leaf reads “Read at a meeting held Sixth Month (June) 13, 1889”, and the poem is written for that anniversary, so this is the occasion rather than a reprint.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-on-miscellaneous-subjects-1857",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-1871",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007491600",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100774124",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-full-text-1895",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100488369",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-idylls-of-the-bible-1901",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100319488",
   "https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00payn",
   "https://archive.org/details/WeeklyAngloAfricanI",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1858-05-14_28_20",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000500702",
   "https://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr00stil",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_light-beyond-the-darkness",
   "https://archive.org/details/ame-church-review-1900-04"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 1,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 4.5 character advances (~2.2 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/17226",
    "date": "2026-08-19"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 15,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We come, but not to celebrate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the flight and whirl of years,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The deeds of heroes, on whose brows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are laurels, drenched with blood and tears.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nor yet to tell of wondrous deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Performed on fields of bloodless strife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But of the lovely, precious things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That bless and beautify our life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And from the annals of the poor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We would unfold a shining page;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tell of kindly hands that smoothed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rugged path of faltering age.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To shelter those who long have borne",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life’s chilling storms and searching heat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In restful homes, with love alight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What charity more pure and sweet?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But not beneath this spacious Home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was laid the first foundation stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the hearts that learned to feel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For woman, stricken, old and lone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To Hall and Truman, Still and Laing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was given power to aid and bless;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, faithful to her sacred charge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Constant and helping, stood Ann Jess.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "May Sarah Pennock, whose kind hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has often brought the “Home” relief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feel life replete with God’s great peace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Find light in darkness, joy in grief.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Custodian of the generous purse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May Israel Johnson long remain;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reach at last the happy land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where faithful service meets its gain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And join again departed forms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wife and sister passed before;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gave their treasure to the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By generous gifts unto His poor.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And some who met with us erewhile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have passed unto the other side;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like precious fragrance, may their deeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within our heart of hearts abide.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Year after year, within these halls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did Dillwyn Parrish faithful stand;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till He “who gives his loved ones sleep”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Released, in death, his helpful hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of those who scattered flowers fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around the verge of parting life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We would record with grateful words,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The names of Stephen Smith and wife.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whose hands, enriched with golden store,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave of their wealth to build this “Home,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And changed a narrow domicile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a grand and stately dome.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! when our earthly homes shall fail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And vanish from our fading sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May friends and patrons meet again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In God’s fair halls of love and light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where homeless ones shall never weep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor weary aged wanderers roam;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But walk amid the golden streets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Secure within our Father’s home.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}