{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-reunion",
 "title": "The Reunion",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Sketches of Southern Life",
 "book_slug": "sketches-of-southern-life",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1872,
  "venue": "Sketches of Southern Life (1872)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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",
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   "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",
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   "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",
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   "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
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  "longest_line_chars": 40,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, one morning real early",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was going down the street,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I heard a stranger asking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Missis Chloe Fleet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There was a something in his voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That made me feel quite shaky,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I looked right in his face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who should it be but Jakey!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I grasped him tight, and took him home⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What gladness filled my cup!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I laughed, and just rolled over,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And laughed, and just give up.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Where have you been? O Jakey, dear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why didn’t you come before?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! when you children went away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart was awful sore.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why, mammy, I’ve been on your hunt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since ever I’ve been free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I have heard from brother Ben⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s down in Tennessee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He wrote me that he had a wife.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And children?” “Yes, he’s three.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“You married, too?” “Oh no, indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought I’d first get free.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then, Jakey, you will stay with me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And comfort my poor heart;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Old Mistus got no power now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To tear us both apart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I’m richer now than Mistus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because I have got my son;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Mister Thomas he is dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she’s got nary one.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You must write to brother Benny",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That he must come this fall,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And we’ll make the cabin bigger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that will hold us all.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Tell him I want to see ’em all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before my life do cease:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And then, like good old Simeon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hope to die in peace.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}