{
 "id": "sarah-louisa-forten-purvis/past-joys",
 "title": "Past Joys",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis",
 "poet_slug": "sarah-louisa-forten-purvis",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1831,
  "venue": "The Liberator (Boston, 1831)",
  "note": "Year from the Wikipedia article's poetry table, which is corroborated here two ways: every one of its seven other datable rows agrees with an issue of The Liberator read on disk, and the Standard Ebooks gathering this text comes from prints the poems in strictly chronological order of first publication, placing this one before the issue of 30 June 1832 whose printing was verified. The issue itself has not been read here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Louisa_Forten_Purvis"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/sarah-louisa-forten-purvis_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/liberator1831garr",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1832-06-30_2_26",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1832-07-07_2_27",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1833-05-25_3_21",
   "https://archive.org/details/sn84031524_1833080301",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1833-12-21_3_51",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1834-01-04_4_1",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1834-01-18_4_3",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1834-02-01_4_5",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1835-06-27_5_26",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_cincinnati-weekly-herald-and-philanthropist_1836-03-11_1_11"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The friends we’ve loved, the home we’ve left,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will ofttimes claim a tear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And though of these we are bereft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still memory makes them dear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And deep we feel each trifling ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each sorrow of the soul:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But care we for the painful thrill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That o’er some breasts doth roll?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor Afric’s son⁠—ah! he must feel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How hard it is to part",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From all he lov’d⁠—from all that life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had twined around his heart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His is a sorrow deeper far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than all that we can show;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His is a lasting grief, o’er which",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No healing balm can flow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The mother, wife, or child he loved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He ne’er shall see again;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To him they’re lost⁠—ay, dead indeed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What for him doth remain?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A feeling of deep wretchedness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes o’er his troubled soul;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The thoughts of home⁠—of other days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In painful visions roll.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His home⁠—ah! that lov’d name recalls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All that was dear to him;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But these were scenes he’ll know no more⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He only feels they’ve been.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}