{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/the-young-warrior",
 "title": "The Young Warrior",
 "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": 13,
 "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": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Mother, shed no mournful tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But gird me on my sword;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And give no utterance to thy fears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But bless me with thy word.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The lines are drawn! The fight is on!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cause is to be won!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mother, look not so white and wan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give Godspeed to thy son.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now let thine eyes my way pursue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’er my footsteps fare;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when they lead beyond thy view,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Send after me a prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But pray not to defend from harm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor danger to dispel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pray, rather, that with steadfast arm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I fight the battle well.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pray, mother of mine, that I always keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart and purpose strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sword unsullied and ready to leap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unsheathed against the wrong.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}