{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-contrast",
 "title": "The Contrast",
 "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": 12,
 "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
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  "longest_line_chars": 39,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "They scorned her for her sinning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spoke harshly of her fall,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor lent the hand of mercy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To break her hated thrall.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dews of meek repentance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood in her downcast eye:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would no one heed her anguish?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All pass her coldly by?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From the cold, averted glances",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of each reproachful eye,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She turned aside, heart-broken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And laid her down to die.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And where was he, who sullied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her once unspotted name;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lured her from life’s brightness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To agony and shame?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who left her on life’s billows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wrecked and ruined thing;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who brought the winter of despair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon Hope’s blooming spring?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through the halls of wealth and fashion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In gaiety and pride,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He was leading to the altar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A fair and lovely bride!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "None scorned him for his sinning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Few saw it through his gold;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His crimes were only foibles,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And these were gently told.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Before him rose a vision,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A maid of beauty rare;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then a pale, heart-broken woman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The image of despair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Next came a sad procession,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With many a sob and tear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A widow’d, childless mother",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Totter’d by an humble bier.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The vision quickly faded,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sad, unwelcome sight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But his lip forgot its laughter.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his eye its careless light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A moment, and the flood-gates",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of memory opened wide;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And remorseful recollection",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowed like a lava tide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That widow’s wail of anguish",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed strangely blending there,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And mid the soft lights floated",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That image of despair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}