{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/do-not-cheer-men-are-dying-said-capt-phillips-in-the-spanish-american-",
 "title": "“Do Not Cheer, Men Are Dying,” Said Capt. Phillips, in the Spanish-American War",
 "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": 1900,
  "venue": "Poems (Philadelphia: 1006 Bainbridge Street, 1900), pages 88–89",
  "note": "Located in the 1900 scan on disk under the heading “DO NOT CHEER, MEN ARE DYING,” SAID CAPT. PHILLIPS, IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. First located printing. Poems (Philadelphia: 1006 Bainbridge Street, 1900) is the enlarged printing: its contents leaf still ends at “An Appeal to My Country Women … 72”, as the 1896 and 1898 printings do, and the poems from page 75 on are set after the contents without being listed in it. The poem is in neither the 1896 nor the 1898 printing on disk. All three printings carry “Copyrighted, 1895, by Frances E. W. Harper”, and an earlier periodical printing has not been ruled out. Lehigh’s digital anthology gives the venue as Harper’s Poems (1898); the 1898 printing on disk does not contain the poem, which is why 1900 is recorded here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poem00harp",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-do-not-cheer-men-are-dying-1898"
  ]
 },
 "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer, for men are dying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From their distant homes in pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the restless sea is darkened",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a flood of crimson rain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer, for anxious mothers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wait and watch in lonely dread;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Vainly waiting for the footsteps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never more their paths to tread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer, while little children",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gather round the widowed wife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wondering why an unknown people",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sought their own dear father’s life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer, for aged fathers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bend above their staves and weep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the ocean sings the requiem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where their fallen children sleep.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer, for lips are paling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On which lay the mother’s kiss;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid the dreadful roar of battle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How that mother’s hand they miss!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer: once joyous maidens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who the mazy dance did tread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bow their heads in bitter anguish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mourning o’er their cherished dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer while maid and matron",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this strife must bear a part;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the blow that strikes a soldier",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reaches to some woman’s heart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer till arbitration",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the nations holds its sway,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the century now closing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ushers in a brighter day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer until the nation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall more wise and thoughtful grow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than to staunch a stream of sorrow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By an avalanche of woe.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do not cheer until each nation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sheathes the sword and blunts the spear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And we sing aloud for gladness:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo, the reign of Christ is here,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the banners of destruction",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the battle-field are furled,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the peace of God descending",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rests upon a restless world.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}