{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/retribution",
 "title": "Retribution",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 17,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
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  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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 },
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Judgment slumbered. God in mercy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stayed his strong avenging hand;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent them priests and sent them prophets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But they would not understand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Judgment lingered; men, grown bolder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gloried in their shame and guilt;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the blood of God’s poor childrep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was as water freely spilt.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then arose a cry to heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep and startling, sad and wild,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sadder than the wail of Egypt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mourning for the first-born child.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For the sighing of the needy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God at length did bare his hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the footsteps of his judgments",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Echoed through the guilty land.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! the terror, grief and anguish;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! the bitter, fearful strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the judgments of Jehovah",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pressed upon the nation’s life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the land did reel and tremble",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Neath the terror of his frown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For its guilt lay heavy on it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pressing like an iron crown.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As a warning to the nations,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bathed in blood and swathed in fire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay the once oppressing nation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smitten by God’s fearful ire.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}