{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/lessons-of-the-street",
 "title": "Lessons of the Street",
 "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": 1858,
  "venue": "The Liberator 28.20 (Boston, 14 May 1858)",
  "note": "Located in the issue scan on disk, in the poetry column headed “For the Liberator. / LESSONS OF THE STREET.” and signed “Frances E. Watkins.”; the masthead reads “BOSTON, FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1858. WHOLE NUMBER, 1430”. “For the Liberator” marks it an original contribution rather than a reprint.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1858-05-14_28_20"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "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",
   "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Walking through life’s dusty highways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mid the tramp of hurrying feet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We may gather much instruction",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the “lessons of the street.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now a beggar sues for succor⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, repress that look of pride!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Neath that wrecked and shattered body",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth a human soul reside.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here’s a brow that seems to tell you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I am prematurely old;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I have spent my youthful vigor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In an eager search for gold.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On the cheek of yon pale student",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is a divorcement most unkind⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis the cruel separation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his body from his mind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here a painted child of shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flaunts in costly robes of sin,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a reckless mirth that cannot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hide the smouldering fires within.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here’s a face, so calm and mild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mid the restless din and strife;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems to say, in every line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’m aiming for a higher life.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Just then I caught a mournful glance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As on the human river rushed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A harrowing look, which plainly said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The music of my life is hushed.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Look on that face, so deathly pale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its bloom and flush forever fled:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I started, for it seemed to bear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A message to the silent dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus hurries on the stream of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To empty where Death’s waters meet;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We pass along, we pass away⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus end the lessons of the street.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}