{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/sir-we-would-see-jesus",
 "title": "“Sir, We Would See Jesus”",
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-1871",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp",
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   "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://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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We would see Jesus; earth is grand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowing out from her Creator’s hand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like one who tracks his steps with light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His footsteps ever greet our sight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The earth below, the sky above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are full of tokens of his love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ’mid the fairest scenes we’ve sighed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our hearts are still unsatisfied.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We would see Jesus; proud and high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Temples and domes have met our eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve gazed upon the glorious thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By earnest hands in marble wrought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And listened where the lying feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beat time to music, soft and sweet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But bow’rs of ease, and halls of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our yearning hearts ne’er satisfied.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We would see Jesus; we have heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tidings our inmost souls have stirred,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How, from their chambers full of night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The darkened eyes receive the light;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How, at the music of his voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lame do leap, the dumb rejoice.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anxious we’ll wait until we’ve seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The good and gracious Nazarene.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}