{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/he-had-not-where-to-lay-his-head",
 "title": "He “Had Not Where to Lay His Head”",
 "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": 15,
 "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": {
  "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The conies had their hiding-place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wily fox with stealthy tread",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A covert found, but Christ, the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had not a place to lay his head.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The eagle had an eyrie home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blithesome bird its quiet rest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But not the humblest spot on earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was by the Son of God possessed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Princes and kings had palaces,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With grandeur could adorn each tomb,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For Him who came with love and life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They had no home, they gave no room.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The hands whose touch sent thrills of joy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through nerves unstrung and palsied frame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The feet that travelled for our need,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were nailed unto the cross of shame.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How dare I murmur at my lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or talk of sorrow, pain and loss,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When Christ was in a manger laid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And died in anguish on the cross.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That homeless one beheld beyond",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His lonely agonizing pain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A love outflowing from His heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all the wandering world would gain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}