{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-refiners-gold",
 "title": "The Refiner’s Gold",
 "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": 24,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He stood before my heart’s closed door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And asked to enter in;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But I had barred the passage o’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By unbelief and sin.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He came with nail-prints in his hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To set my spirit free;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With wounded feet he trod a path",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To come and sup with me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He found me poor and brought me gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fire of love had tried,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And garments whitened by his blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wretchedness to hide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The glare of life had dimmed my eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its glamour was too bright.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He came with ointment in his hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To heal my darkened sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He knew my heart was tempest-tossed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By care and pain oppressed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He whispered to my burdened heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come unto me and rest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He found me weary, faint and worn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On barren mountains cold;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With love’s constraint he drew me on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To shelter in his fold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! foolish heart, how slow wert thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To welcome thy dear guest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To change thy weariness and care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For comfort, peace and rest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Close to his side, oh! may I stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Just to behold his face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I shall wear within my soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The image of his grace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The grace that changes hearts of stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To tenderness and love,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bids us run with willing feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto his courts above.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}