{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/go-work-in-my-vineyard",
 "title": "Go Work in My Vineyard",
 "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": 16,
 "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",
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   "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://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-idylls-of-the-bible-1901",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100319488",
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   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc",
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  ],
  "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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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Go work in my vineyard, said the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gather the bruised grain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the reapers had left the stubble bare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I trod the soil in pain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The fields of my Lord are wide and broad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He has pastures fair and green,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And vineyards that drink the golden light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which flows from the sun’s bright sheen.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I heard the joy of the reapers’ song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As they gathered golden grain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then wearily turned unto my task,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a lonely sense of pain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sadly I turned from the sun’s fierce glare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sought the quiet shade,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And over my dim and weary eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep’s peaceful fingers strayed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I dreamed I joined with a restless throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eager for pleasure and gain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But ever and anon a stumbler fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And uttered a cry of pain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But the eager crowd still hurried on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too busy to pause or heed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When a voice rang sadly through my soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You must staunch these wounds that bleed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My hands were weak, but I reached them out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To feebler ones than mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And over the shadows of my life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stole the light of a peace divine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! then my task was a sacred thing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How precious it grew in my eyes!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas mine to gather the bruised grain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the “Lord of Paradise.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when the reapers shall lay their grain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the floors of golden light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I feel that mine with its broken sheaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be precious in His sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though thorns may often pierce my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shadows still abide,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The mists will vanish before His smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There will be light at eventide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}