{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/mary-at-the-feet-of-christ",
 "title": "Mary at the Feet of Christ",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "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": [
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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://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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 15,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 32,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "She stood at Jesus’ feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bathed them with her tears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While o’er her spirit surg’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The guilt and shame of years.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though Simon saw the grief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the fair young face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The stern man coldly thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For her this is no place.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her feet have turned aside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From paths of truth and right,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If Christ a prophet be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’ll spurn her from his sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And silently he watched",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The child of sin and care,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Uncoil upon Christ’s feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her wealth of raven hair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Life! she sadly thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know thy bane and blight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet I fain would find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The path of peace and right.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’ve seen the leper cleansed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve seen the sick made whole,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But mine’s a deeper wound⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It eats into the soul.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And men have trampled down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The beauty once their prize,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While women pass me by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With cold, averted eyes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But now a hope of peace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Steals o’er my weary breast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from these lips of love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There comes a sense of rest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The tender, loving Christ",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazed on her tearful eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then saw on Simon’s face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A look of cold surprise.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Simon,” the Saviour said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thou wast to me remiss,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I came thy guest, but thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Didst give no welcome kiss.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thou broughtest from thy fount",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No water cool and sweet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But she, with many tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath bent and kissed my feet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thou pouredst on my head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No oil with kindly care,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But she anoints my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wipes them with her hair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I know her steps have strayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sins they many be,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But she with love hath bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her erring heart to me.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How sweetly fell his words",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon her bruised heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When, like a ghastly train,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She felt her sins depart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What music heard on earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rapture moving heaven",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were like those precious words⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thy sins are all forgiven!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}