{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/report",
 "title": "Report",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects",
 "book_slug": "poems-on-miscellaneous-subjects",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 8,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1854,
  "venue": "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42194389"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "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,
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I heard, my young friend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You were seeking a wife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman to make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your companion for life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, if you are seeking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wife for your youth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let this be your aim, then⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek a woman of truth.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She may not have talents,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With greatness combined,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her gifts may be humble,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of person and mind:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if she be constant,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gentle, and true,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Believe me my friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s the woman for you!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! wed not for beauty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though fair is the prize;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It may pall when you grasp it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fade in your eyes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let gold not allure you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let wealth not attract;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a house full of treasure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman may lack.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let her habits be frugal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her hands not afraid",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To work in her household",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or follow her trade.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let her language be modest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her actions discreet;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her manners refined,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And free from deceit.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now if such you should find,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In your journey through life,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just open your mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make her your wife.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}