{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/our-english-friends",
 "title": "Our English Friends",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Sketches of Southern Life",
 "book_slug": "sketches-of-southern-life",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1872,
  "venue": "Sketches of Southern Life (1872)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249"
  ]
 },
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Your land is crowned with regal men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose brows ne’er wore a diadem⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The men who, in our hour of need,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reached out their hands and bade God speed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who watched across the distant strand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The anguish of our fainting land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And grandly made our cause their own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till Slavery tottered on her throne.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Slavery, full of wrath and strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was clutching at the Nation’s life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How precious were your words of cheer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That fell upon the listening ear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when did Fame, with glowing pen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Record the deeds of nobler men⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The men who, facing want and pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loved freedom more than paltry gain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O noble men! ye bravely stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "True to our country’s highest good;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May God, who saw your aims and ends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forever bless our English friends!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}