{
 "id": "sarah-louisa-forten-purvis/prayer",
 "title": "Prayer",
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This sacred right none are denied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which makes the soul to Christ allied;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man bends the heart and bows the knee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And knows in prayer that he is free.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, free to ask of Him, whate’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fainting heart alone can cheer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To worship at that holy shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where beams thy Spirit, Lord, divine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Afric’s children they are free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To breathe their vows, their prayers to Thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With thought of future joy and gain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The slave forgets his grief and pain;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Forgets awhile his slavish fear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgets⁠—that fetters bind him here;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in that sweet communion rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His hopes, his fears⁠—for he is blest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}