{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/lines-to-miles-oreiley",
 "title": "Lines to Miles O’Reiley",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 18,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1871,
  "venue": "Poems (1871)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp"
  ]
 },
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "You’ve heard no doubt of Irish bulls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how they blunder, thick and fast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But of all the queer and foolish things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’Reiley, you have said the last.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You say we brought the rebs supplies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gave them aid amid the fight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And if you must be ruled by rebs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Instead of black you want them white.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You blame us that we did not rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pluck war from a fiery brand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When Little Mac said if we did,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’d put us down with iron hand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when we sought to join your ranks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And battle with you, side by side,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Did men not curl their lips with scorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thrust us back with hateful pride?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when at last we gained the field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did we not firmly, bravely stand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And help to turn the tide of death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That spread its ruin o’er the land?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We hardly think we’re worse than those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who kindled up this fearful strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Because we did not seize the chance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To murder helpless babes and wife,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And had we struck, with vengeful hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rebel where he most could feel,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were you not ready to impale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our hearts upon your Northern steel?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O’Reiley, men like you should wear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gift of song like some bright crown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor worse than ruffians of the ring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strike at a man because he’s down.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}