{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/song-to-erin",
 "title": "Song to Erin",
 "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": 27,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! Erin my country, my ancestor’s home!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Impelled by my wants, I, from thee, had to roam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now my heart yearneth, sore longeth for thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My dear native Ireland, my “gem of the sea.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! Erin my country, thou land of the brave!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’ll rescue from tyr’ny, who’ll ransom and save?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy despots so strong, are still wielding their power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bind thee in slavery both now and forever.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Speak! speak! who will rescue our Emerald Isle?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now bowed by the oppressor in servitude vile!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sons are all scattered, her daughters are gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she is left desolate, forlorn and alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’ll sigh for thee Erin, when spring winds doth fan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With musical breathings, this far distant land;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twill remind me of youth’s happy days on thy shore⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of days, mournful thought, I shall never see more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’ll weep for thee Erin, as the blue waters surge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall re-echo my wailing, shall chant the sad dirge;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Ireland in slavery, once land of the free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Ireland, my country, my “gem of the sea.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}