{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/atlanta-exposition-ode",
 "title": "Atlanta Exposition Ode",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 12,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Cast down your bucket where you are,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From burning sands or Polar star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From where the iceberg rears its head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or where the kingly palms outspread;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid blackened fields or golden sheaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or foliage green, or autumn leaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come sounds of warning from afar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Cast down your bucket where you are.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What doth it matter if thy years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have slowly dragged ’mid sighs and tears?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What doth it matter, since thy day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is brightened now by hope’s bright ray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The morning star will surely rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Ethiop’s sons with longing eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And outstretched hands, will bless the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When old things shall have passed away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, comrades, from the East, the West!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, bridge the chasm. It is best.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, warm hearts of the sunny South,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clasp hands with the mighty North.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise Afric’s sons and chant with joy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good will to all without alloy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night of grief has passed away⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Orient gleams a brighter day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Say, ye that wore the blue, how sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That thus in sympathy we meet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our brothers who the gray did love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And martyrs to their cause did prove.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say, once for all and once again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That blood no more shall flow in vain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say Peace shall brood o’er this fair land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hearts, for aye, be joined with hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hail! Watchman, from thy lofty height;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell us, O tell us of the night?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will Bethlehem’s Star ere long arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And point this nation to the skies?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will paeans ring from land and sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fraught with untrammelled liberty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till Time’s appointed course be run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Earth’s millennium be began?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Cast down your bucket,” let it be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As water flows both full and free!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let charity, that twice blest boon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy watchword be from night to morn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let kindness as the dew distil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To friend and foe, alike, good will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till sounds the wondrous battle-call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all one flag, one flag for all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}