{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/sonnet-to-my-firstborn",
 "title": "Sonnet to My Firstborn",
 "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": 33,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! waves in the sunlight gleaming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! billows with ceaseless roar,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring back to this aching heart of mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The laddie you bore long ago.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Far out on on your restless bosom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far away from his boy-hood’s home,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I charge you waves of the deep, blue sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bid my wanderer come.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! stars in the heavens twinkling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like lamps hung up in the sky,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! moon look down through the darkness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His trysting-place you may descry.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then tell him a fond heart is aching,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In love for the dear one she bore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! surely to thee he will hearken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And haste to his own cottage door.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The winds of the autumn are sighing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The leaves from the trees falling fast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The roses that erstwhile were blooming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say mournfully⁠—Summer is past.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The daisies have long ago slumbered,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their blossoms I search for in vain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But surely for thee I will look, love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere spring time brings them again.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the Frost-King’s robe is glistening",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er hill, and valley, and glen,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the bright sleigh-bells are jingling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know he’ll come to me then.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So sunlight, or starlight, or moonlight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever my truant you see,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just tell him you left me a-waiting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far over the deep blue sea.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}