{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/ruth-and-naomi",
 "title": "Ruth and Naomi",
 "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": 17,
 "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",
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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": 52,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Turn my daughters, full of woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is my heart so sad and lone?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Leave me children⁠—I would go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my loved and distant home.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From my bosom death has torn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Husband, children, all my stay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Left me not a single one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For my life’s declining day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Want and woe surround my way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief and famine where I tread;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In my native land they say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God is giving Jacob bread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Naomi ceased, her daughters wept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their yearning hearts were filled;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Falling upon her withered neck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their grief in tears distill’d.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like rain upon a blighted tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tears of Orpah fell;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Kissing the pale and quivering lip,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She breathed her sad farewell.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Ruth stood up, on her brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There lay a heavenly calm;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from her lips came, soft and low,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Words like a holy charm.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I will not leave thee, on thy brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are lines of sorrow, age and care;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy form is bent, thy step is slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy bosom stricken, lone and sear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! when thy heart and home were glad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I freely shared thy joyous lot;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And now that heart is lone and sad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cease to entreat⁠—I’ll leave thee not.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! if a lofty palace proud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy future home shall be;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where sycophants around thee crowd,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll share that home with thee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And if on earth the humblest spot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy future home shall prove;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll bring into thy lonely lot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wealth of woman’s love.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go where thou wilt, my steps are there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our path in life is one;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast no lot I will not share,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Till life itself be done.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My country and my home for thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I freely, willingly resign,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy people shall my people be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy God he shall be mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, mother dear, entreat me not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To turn from following thee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart is nerved to share thy lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whatever that may be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}