{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/president-lincolns-proclamation-of-freedom",
 "title": "President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Freedom",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "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://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": 37,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "It shall flash through coming ages;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It shall light the distant years;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And eyes now dim with sorrow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be clearer through their tears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It shall flush the mountain ranges;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the valleys shall grow bright;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It shall bathe the hills in radiance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crown their brows with light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It shall flood with golden splendor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the huts of Caroline,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sun-kissed brow of labor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With lustre new shall shine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It shall gild the gloomy prison,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Darken’d by the nation’s crime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the dumb and patient millions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wait the better coming time.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By the light that gilds their prison,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They shall seize its mould’ring key,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bolts and bars shall vibrate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the triumphs of the free.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like the dim and ancient chaos,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shrinking from the dawn of light.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oppression, grim and hoary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall cower at the sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And her spawn of lies and malice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall grovel in the dust,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While joy shall thrill the bosoms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the merciful and just.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though the morning seemed to linger",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the hill-tops far away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now the shadows bear the promise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the quickly coming day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Soon the mists and murky shadows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall be fringed with crimson light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the glorious dawn of freedom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Break refulgent on the sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}