{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-ragged-stocking",
 "title": "The Ragged Stocking",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1901,
  "venue": "Idylls of the Bible (1901), page 48",
  "note": "Located in the scan on disk under the heading THE RAGGED STOCKING. First located printing. Idylls of the Bible (Philadelphia: 1006 Bainbridge Street, 1901) is a late gathering of work written over decades, so an earlier printing is likely and has not been located here; the poem is not in the 1857, 1871, 1872/1891, 1895, 1896, 1898 or 1900 volumes on disk.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/idyllsofbible00harp"
  ]
 },
 "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": 72,
  "n_stanzas": 18,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you see this ragged stocking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here a rent and there a hole?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each thread of this little stocking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is woven around my soul.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you wish to hear my story?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Excuse me, the tears will start,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the sight of this ragged stocking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stirs the fountains of my heart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You say that my home is happy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me ’tis earth’s fairest place,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But its sunshine, peace and gladness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to this stocking I trace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I was once a wretched drunkard;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! you start and say not so;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the dreadful depths I’ve sounded,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I speak of what I know.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I was wild and very reckless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I stood on manhood’s brink,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, joining with pleasure-seekers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Learned to revel and drink.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strong drink is a raging demon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his hands are shame and woe;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He mocketh the strength of the mighty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bringeth the strong man low.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The light of my home was darkened",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the shadow of my sin;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And want and woe unbarr’d the door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And suffering entered in.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The streets were full one Christmas eve,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And alive with girls and boys,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Merrily looking through window-panes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At bright and beautiful toys.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And throngs of parents came to buy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gifts that children prize,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And homeward trudged with happy hearts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The love-light in their eyes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I thought of my little Charley",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At home in his lowly bed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the shadows around his life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in shame I bowed my head.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I entered my home a sober man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart by remorse was wrung,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And there in the chimney corner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This little stocking was hung.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Faded and worn as you see it;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me ’tis a precious thing.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I never gaze upon it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But unbidden tears will spring.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I began to search my pockets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But scarcely a dime was there;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But scanty as was the pittance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This stocking received its share.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For a longing seized upon me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To gladden the heart of my boy.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I bought him some cakes and candy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And added a simple toy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then I knelt by this little stocking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sobbed out an earnest prayer,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And arose with strength to wrestle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And break from the tempter’s snare.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And this faded, worn-out stocking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So pitiful once to see,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Became the wedge that broke my chain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a blessing brought to me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you marvel then I prize it?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When each darn and seam and hole",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is linked with my soul’s deliverance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the bondage of the bowl?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And to-night my wife will tell you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I’ve houses, gold and land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He holds no treasure more precious",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than this stocking in my hand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}