{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/burial-of-sarah",
 "title": "Burial of Sarah",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Atlanta Offering: Poems",
 "book_slug": "atlanta-offering",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 26,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1895,
  "venue": "Atlanta Offering: Poems (1895)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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",
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   "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",
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   "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",
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   "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
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  "longest_line_chars": 38,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He stood before the sons of Heth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bowed his sorrowing head;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’ve come,” he said, “to buy a place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I may lay my dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I am a stranger in your land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My home has lost its light;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Grant me a place where I may lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My dead away from sight.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then tenderly the sons of Heth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazed on the mourner’s face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And said, “Oh, Prince, amid our dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Choose thou her resting-place.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The sepulchres of those we love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We place at thy command;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the plea thy grief hath made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We close not heart nor hand.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The patriarch rose and bowed his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said, “One place I crave;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis at the end of Ephron’s field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And called Machpelah’s cave.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Entreat him that he sell to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For her last sleep that cave;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I do not ask for her I loved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The freedom of a grave.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The son of Zohar answered him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Hearken, my lord, to me;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before our sons, the field and cave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I freely give to thee.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I will not take it as a gift,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grand old man then said;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I pray thee let me buy the place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I may lay my dead.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And with the promise in his heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His seed should own that land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He gave the shekels for the field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He took from Ephron’s hand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And saw afar the glorious day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His chosen seed should tread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The soil where he in sorrow lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His loved and cherished dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}