{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/the-nativity",
 "title": "The Nativity",
 "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": 51,
 "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": 48,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The gloom of night had overspread the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swaying its dread sceptre o’er every man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For superstition like a monarch reigned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Adam’s sons were fettered by its chain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the fulfilment of the promise came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Saviour! born to-day in Bethlehem;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gabriel, the news, the joyful news revealed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By night, to some poor shepherds in the field.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go now to Bethlehem, behold the Babe⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though Lord of all, He’s in a manger laid!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the horned cattle there you’ll find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Prince of Peace, the Saviour of mankind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Shepherds then in haste obeyed his word.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Guided by flaming star to view their Lord;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They entered in, when, judge of their surprise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An infant, a Redeemer, burst upon their eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Amazed, affrighted, trembling, they",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazed on the Babe as there He lay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though in a manger yet He bore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rare tokens of Almighty power.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}