Lyric Poem · Childhood

"And the sins of the fathers shall be"

by Stephen Crane

Reading room

1"And the sins of the fathers shall be

2visited upon the heads of the children,

3even unto the third and fourth

4generation of them that hate me."

5Well, then I hate thee, unrighteous picture;

6Wicked image, I hate thee;

7So, strike with thy vengeance

8The heads of those little men

9Who come blindly.

10It will be a brave thing.

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Quick facts

Poem: "And the sins of the fathers shall be"
Poet: Stephen Crane
Length: 10 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Childhood, Short

Craft notes

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Shape: 10 lines · 2 stanzas of 4–6 lines

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Author record: Stephen Crane1871–1900
Source record: PoetryDB"And the sins of the fathers shall be" by stephen-crane, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 831ec9a3305270b1…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Childhood Short

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