{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/fishers-of-men",
 "title": "“Fishers of Men”",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Sketches of Southern Life",
 "book_slug": "sketches-of-southern-life",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 11,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1891,
  "venue": "Sketches of Southern Life, enlarged printing (1891)",
  "note": "Not in the 1872 first edition: the scan of that edition on disk does not contain it, while the 1891 printing does. Whether it appeared in a periodical between those dates has not been established.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872"
  ]
 },
 "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": 52,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I had a dream, a varied dream:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before my ravished sight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The city of my Lord arose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all its love and light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The music of a myriad harps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowed out with sweet accord;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And saints were casting down their crowns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In homage to our Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My heart leaped up with untold joy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life’s toil and pain were o’er;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My weary feet at last had found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bright and restful shore.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Just as I reached the gates of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ready to enter in,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From earth arose a fearful cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sorrow and of sin.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I turned, and saw behind me surge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wild and stormy sea;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And drowning men were reaching out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imploring hands to me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And ev’ry lip was blanched with dread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And moaning for relief;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The music of the golden harps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grew fainter for their grief.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let me return, I quickly said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close to the pearly gate;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My work is with these wretched ones,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So wrecked and desolate.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An angel smiled and gently said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the gate of life,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou return to earth’s sad scenes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its weariness and strife,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To comfort hearts that sigh and break,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dry the falling tear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou forego the music sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Entrancing now thy ear?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I must return, I firmly said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The struggles in that sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall not reach out beseeching hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain for help to me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I turned to go; but as I turned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gloomy sea grew bright,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from my heart there seemed to flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ten thousand cords of light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And sin-wrecked men, with eager hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did grasp each golden cord;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And with my heart I drew them on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see my gracious Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Again I stood beside the gate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart was glad and free;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For with me stood a rescued throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord had given me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}