{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/answer-to-prayer",
 "title": "Answer to Prayer",
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Fifty Years & Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "fifty-years-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 45,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Fifty Years & Other Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-weldon-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_the_National_Association_for_the_Adv/AAs-AQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884",
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 71,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Der ain’t no use in sayin’ de Lawd won’t answer prah;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you knows how to ax Him, I knows He’s bound to heah.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "De trouble is, some people don’t ax de proper way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Den w’en dey git’s no answer dey doubts de use to pray.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You got to use egzac’ly de ’spressions an’ de words",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show dat ’tween yo’ faith an’ works, you ’pends on works two-thirds.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, one time I remember⁠—jes how long I won’t say⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought I’d like a turkey to eat on Chris’mus day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fu’ weeks I dreamed ’bout turkeys, a-struttin’ in der pride;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But seed no way to get one⁠—widout de Lawd pervide.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An’ so I went to prayin’, I pray’d wid all my might;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lawd, sen’ to me a turkey.” I pray’d bofe day an’ night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Lawd, sen’ to me a turkey, a big one if you please.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I ’clar to heaben I pray’d so much I mos’ wore out ma knees.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I pray’d dat prah so often, I pray’d dat prah so long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet didn’t git no turkey, I know’d ’twas sump’n wrong.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So on de night ’fore Chris’mus w’en I got down to pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lawd, sen’ me to a turkey,” I had de sense to say.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Lawd, sen’ me to a turkey.” I know dat prah was right,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ it was sholy answer’d; I got de bird dat night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}