{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/going-east",
 "title": "Going East",
 "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": 27,
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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",
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   "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",
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   "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
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  "longest_line_chars": 43,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "She came from the East a fair, young bride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a light and a bounding heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To find in the distant West a home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With her husband to make a start.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He builded his cabin far away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the prairie flower bloomed wild;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her love made lighter all his toil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And joy and hope around him smiled.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She plied her hands to life’s homely tasks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And helped to build his fortunes up;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While joy and grief, like bitter and sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were mingled and mixed in her cup.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sowed in his fields of golden grain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the strength of his manly prime;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor music of birds, nor brooks, nor bees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was as sweet as the dollar’s chime.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She toiled and waited through weary years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the fortune that came at length;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But toil and care and hope deferred,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had stolen and wasted her strength.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The cabin changed to a stately home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rich carpets were hushing her tread;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But light was fading from her eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bloom from her cheek had fled.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her husband was adding field to field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And new wealth to his golden store;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And little thought the shadow of death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was entering in at his door.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Slower and heavier grew her step,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While his gold and his gains increased;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But his proud domain had not the charm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her humble home in the East.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He had no line to sound the depths",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her tears repressed and unshed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor dreamed ’mid plenty a human heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could be starving, but not for bread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Within her eye was a restless light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a yearning that never ceased,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A longing to see the dear old home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She had left in the distant East.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A longing to clasp her mother’s hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nestle close to her heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And to feel the heavy cares of life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the sun-kissed shadows depart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The hungry heart was stilled at last;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its restless, baffled yearning ceased.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A lonely man sat by the bier",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a corpse that was going East.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}