{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-hermits-sacrifice",
 "title": "The Hermit’s Sacrifice",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Atlanta Offering: Poems",
 "book_slug": "atlanta-offering",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 28,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1895,
  "venue": "Atlanta Offering: Poems (1895)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248"
  ]
 },
 "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": 80,
  "n_stanzas": 20,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "From Rome’s palaces and villas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gaily issued forth a throng;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From her humbler habitations",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moved a human tide along.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Haughty dames and blooming maidens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men who knew not mercy’s sway,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thronged into the Colosseum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that Roman holiday.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From the lonely wilds of Asia,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From her jungles far away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the distant torrid regions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rome had gathered beasts of prey.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lions restless, roaring, rampant,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tigers with their stealthy tread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Leopards bright, and fierce, and fiery,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Met in conflict wild and dread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fierce and fearful was the carnage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the maddened beasts of prey,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As they fought and rent each other",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Urged by men more fierce than they.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till like muffled thunders breaking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a vast and distant shore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fainter grew the yells of tigers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the lions’ dreadful roar.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On the crimson-stained arena",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay the victims of the fight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes which once had glared with anguish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost in death their baleful light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then uprose the gladiators",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Armed for conflict unto death,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiting for the prefect’s signal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cold and stern with bated breath.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ave Caesar, morituri,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Te, salutant,” rose the cry",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the lips of men ill-fated,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doomed to suffer and to die.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then began the dreadful contest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lives like chaff were thrown away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Rome with all her pride and power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Butchered for a holiday.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eagerly the crowd were waiting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loud the clashing sabres rang,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When between the gladiators",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All unarmed a hermit sprang.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Cease your bloodshed,” cried the hermit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“On this carnage place your ban;”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But with flashing swords they answered,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Back unto your place, old man.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From their path the gladiators",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrust the strange intruder back,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who between their hosts advancing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calmly parried their attack.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All undaunted by their weapons,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood the old heroic man;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While a maddened cry of anger",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the vast assembly ran.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Down with him,” cried out the people,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As with thumbs unbent they glared,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the prefect gave the signal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That his life should not be spared.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men grew wild with wrathful passion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When his fearless words were said.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cruelly they fiercely showered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stones on his devoted head.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bruised and bleeding fell the hermit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Victor in that hour of strife;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gaining in his death a triumph",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That he could not win in life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Had he uttered on the forum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Struggling thoughts within him born,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Men had jeered his words as madness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But his deed they could not scorn.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not in vain had been his courage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor for naught his daring deed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From his grave his mangled body",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did for wretched captives plead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From that hour Rome, grown more thoughtful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ceased her sport in human gore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And into her Colosseum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gladiators came no more.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}