{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/deliverance",
 "title": "Deliverance",
 "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": 1901,
  "venue": "Idylls of the Bible (1901), page 60",
  "note": "Located in the scan on disk under the heading DELIVERANCE. First located printing. Idylls of the Bible (Philadelphia: 1006 Bainbridge Street, 1901) is a late gathering of work written over decades, so an earlier printing is likely and has not been located here; the poem is not in the 1857, 1871, 1872/1891, 1895, 1896, 1898 or 1900 volumes on disk.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/idyllsofbible00harp"
  ]
 },
 "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": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 17,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Rise up! rise up! Oh Israel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let a spotless lamb be slain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The angel of death will o’er you bend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rend your galling chain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sprinkle its blood upon the posts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lintels of your door;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the angel sees the crimson spots",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unharmed he will pass you o’er.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gather your flocks and herds to-night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your children by our side:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A leader from Arabia comes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be your friend and guide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With girded loins and sandled feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Await the hour of dread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When Mizraim shall wildly mourn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her first-born and her dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sons of Abraham no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall crouch ’neath Pharoah’s hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Trembling with agony and dread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’ll thrust you from the land.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And ye shall hold in unborn years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A feast to mark this day,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When joyfully the fathers rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cast their chains away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When crimson tints of morning flush",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The golden gates of day,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or gorgeous hue of even melt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sombre shades away,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then ye shall to your children teach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The meaning of this feast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How from the proud oppressor’s hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their fathers were released,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And ye shall hold through distant years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This feast with glad accord,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And children’s children yet shall learn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To love and trust the Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ages have passed since Israel trod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In triumph through the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet they hold in memory’s urn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their first great jubilee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Moses led the ransomed hosts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Miriam’s song arose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While ruin closed around the path",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their pursuing foes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall Israel thro’ long varied years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These memories cherish yet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And we who lately stood redeemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our broken chains forget?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Should we forget the wondrous change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That to our people came,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When justice rose and sternly plead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our cause with sword and flame?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And led us through the storms of war",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To freedom’s fairer shore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When slavery sank beneath a flood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose waves were human gore.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, youth and maidens of the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise up with one accord,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the name of Christ go forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To battle for the Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go forth, but not in crimson fields.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fratricidal strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the name of Christ go forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For freedom, love and life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go forth to follow in his steps,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who came not to destroy,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till wastes shall blossom as the rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And deserts sing for joy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}