{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-freedom-bell",
 "title": "The Freedom Bell",
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ring, aye, ring the freedom bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let its tones be loud and clear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With glad hosannas let it swell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until it reach the Bondman’s ear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through pain that wrings the life apart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spasms full of deadly strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And throes that shake the nation’s heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fainting land renews her life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where shrieks and groans distract the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sods grow red with crimson rain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The ransom’d slave shall kneel in prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bury deep his rusty chain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where cheeks now pale with sickening dread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brows grow dark with cruel wrath,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall Freedom’s banner wide be spread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Hope and Peace attend her path.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "White-robed and pure her feet shall move",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er rifts of ruin deep and wide;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her hands shall span with lasting love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The chasms rent by hate and pride.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where waters, blush’d with human gore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unsullied streams shall purl along;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where crashed the battle’s awful roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall rise the Freeman’s joyful song.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then ring, aye, ring the freedom bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proclaiming all the nation free;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let earth with sweet thanksgiving swell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heaven catch up the melody.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}