{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/save-the-boys",
 "title": "Save the Boys",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Atlanta Offering: Poems",
 "book_slug": "atlanta-offering",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 19,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1895,
  "venue": "Atlanta Offering: Poems (1895)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248"
  ]
 },
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Like Dives in the deeps of Hell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I cannot break this fearful spell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor quench the fires I’ve madly nursed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor cool this dreadful raging thirst.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take back your pledge⁠—ye come too late!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye cannot save me from my fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor bring me back departed joys;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ye can try to save the boys.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye bid me break my fiery chain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise and be a man again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When every street with snares is spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nets of sin where’er I tread.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No; I must reap as I did sow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The seeds of sin bring crops of woe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with my latest breath I’ll crave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That ye will try the boys to save.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "These bloodshot eyes were once so bright;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This sin-crushed heart was glad and light;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But by the wine-cup’s ruddy glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I traced a path to shame and woe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A captive to my galling chain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve tried to rise, but tried in vain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cup allures and then destroys.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! from its thraldom save the boys.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Take from your streets those traps of hell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into whose gilded snares I fell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! freemen, from these foul decoys",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise, and vote to save the boys.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh ye who license men to trade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In draughts that charm and then degrade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before ye hear the cry, Too late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, save the boys from my sad fate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}