{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-drunkards-child",
 "title": "The Drunkard’s Child",
 "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": 4,
 "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": {
  "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He stood beside his dying child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a dim and bloodshot eye;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They’d won him from the haunts of vice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see his first-born die.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He came with a slow and staggering tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A vague, unmeaning stare,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, reeling, clasped the clammy hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So deathly pale and fair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In a dark and gloomy chamber,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life ebbing fast away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On a coarse and wretched pallet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dying sufferer lay:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A smile of recognition",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lit up the glazing eye;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’m very glad,” it seemed to say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You’ve come to see me die.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That smile reached to his callous heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its sealèd fountains stirred;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He tried to speak, but on his lips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Faltered and died each word.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And burning tears like rain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poured down his bloated face.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where guilt, remorse and shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had scathed, and left their trace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My father!” said the dying child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(His voice was faint and low,)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh! clasp me closely to your heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And kiss me ere I go.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright angels beckon me away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the holy city fair⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! tell me, father, ere I go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say, will you meet me there?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He clasped him to his throbbing heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I will! I will!” he said;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His pleading ceased⁠—the father held",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His first-born and his dead!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The marble brow, with golden curls.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay lifeless on his breast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like sunbeams on the distant clouds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which line the gorgeous west.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}