{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-sparrows-fall",
 "title": "The Sparrow’s Fall",
 "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": 9,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Too frail to soar⁠—a feeble thing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It fell to earth with fluttering wing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But God, who watches over all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beheld that little sparrow’s fall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas not a bird with plumage gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling the air with its morning lay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas not an eagle bold and strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Borne on the tempest’s wing along.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Only a brown and weesome thing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With drooping head and listless wing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It could not drift beyond His sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who marshals the splendid stars of night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Its dying chirp fell on His ears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who tunes the music of the spheres,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hears the hungry lion’s call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spreads a table for us all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Its mission of song at last is done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more will it greet the rising sun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That tiny bird has found a rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More calm than its mother’s downy breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, restless heart, learn thou to trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In God, so tender, strong and just;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whose love and mercy everywhere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His humblest children have a share.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If in love He numbers ev’ry hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether the strands be dark or fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall we not learn to calmly rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like children, on our Father’s breast?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}