{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/dedication-poem",
 "title": "Dedication Poem",
 "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": 5,
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Outcast from her home in Syria",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the lonely, dreary wild;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Heavy hearted, sorrow stricken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sat a mother and her child.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There was not a voice to cheer her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a soul to share her fate;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She was weary, he was fainting⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And life seemed so desolate.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far away in sunny Egypt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was lone Hagar’s native land;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the Nile in kingly bounty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scatters bread throughout the land.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the tents of princely Abram",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She for years had found a home;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the stern decree of Sarah",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent her forth the wild to roam.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hour by hour she journeyed onward",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the shelter of their tent,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till her footsteps slowly faltered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the water all was spent;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then she veiled her face in sorrow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feared her child would die of thirst;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till her eyes with tears so holden",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw a sparkling fountain burst.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! how happy was that mother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What a soothing of her pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When she saw her child reviving,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life rejoicing through each vein.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Does not life repeat this story,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell it over day by day?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the fountains of refreshment",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever springing by our way.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here is one by which we gather,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On this bright and happy day,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just to bask beside a fountain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Making gladder life’s highway.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bringing unto hearts now aged",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who have borne life’s burdens long,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Such a gift of love and mercy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As deserves our sweetest song.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Such a gift that even heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May rejoice with us below,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If the pure and holy angels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Join us in our joy and woe.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "May the memory of the giver",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this home where age may rest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Float like fragrance through the ages,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever blessing, ever blest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the gates of pearl are opened",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May we there this friend behold,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Drink with him from living fountains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walk with him the streets of gold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When life’s shattered cords of music",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall again be sweetly sung;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then our hearts with life immortal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be young, forever young.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}