{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-prodigals-return",
 "title": "The Prodigal’s Return",
 "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": null,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He came⁠—a wanderer; years of sin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had blanched his blooming cheek,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Telling a tale of strife within,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That words might vainly speak.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His feet were bare, his garments torn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His brow was deathly white;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His heart was bleeding, crushed and worn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His soul had felt a blight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His father saw him; pity swept",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yearn’d through every vein;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He ran and clasp’d his child, and wept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murm’ring, “He lives again!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Father, I’ve come, but not to claim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aught from thy love or grace;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I come, a child of guilt and shame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To beg a servant’s place.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Enough! enough!” the father said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Bring robes of princely cost!”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The past with all its shadows fled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For now was found the lost.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Put shoes upon my poor child’s feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With rings his hand adorn,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bid my house his coming greet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With music, dance and song.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! Saviour, mid this world of strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When wayward here we roam,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Conduct us to the paths of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guide us safely home.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then in thy holy courts above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy praise our lips shall sound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While angels join our song of love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That we, the lost are found!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}