{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-dying-child-to-her-blind-father",
 "title": "The Dying Child to Her Blind Father",
 "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": {
  "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": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear father, I hear a whisper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It tells me that I must go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And my heart returns her answer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In throbbings so faint and low.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’m sorry to leave you, father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know you will miss me so,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the world for you will gather",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A gloomier shade of woe.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You will miss me, dearest father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the violets wake from sleep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And timidly from their hedges",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The early snow-drops peep,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I shall not be here to gather",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flowers by stream and dell,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The bright and beautiful flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear Father, you love so well.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You will miss my voice, dear father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From every earthly tone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All the songs that cheered your darkness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you’ll be so sad and lone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I can scarcely rejoice, dear father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In hope of the brighter land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When I know you’ll pine in sadness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And miss my guiding hand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You are weeping, dearest father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your sobs are shaking my soul,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "but we’ll meet again where the shadow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And night from your eyes shall roll.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then you will see me, father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With visions undimmed and clear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your eyes will sparkle with rapture⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You know there’s no blindness there.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}