{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/anthony-findlay",
 "title": "Anthony Findlay",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Lee Masters",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-lee-masters",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spoon River Anthology",
 "book_slug": "spoon-river-anthology",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 119,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Spoon River Anthology (1916)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-lee-masters_spoon-river-anthology",
  "file": "spoon-river-anthology.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://web.archive.org/web/20080723131115/http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/originalOrder/",
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Both for the country and for the man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for a country as well as a man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis better to be feared than loved.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And if this country would rather part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the friendship of every nation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than surrender its wealth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I say of a man ’tis worse to lose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Money than friends.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I rend the curtain that hides the soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an ancient aspiration:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the people clamor for freedom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They really seek for power o’er the strong.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, Anthony Findlay, rising to greatness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a humble water carrier,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until I could say to thousands “Come,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And say to thousands “Go,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Affirm that a nation can never be good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or achieve the good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the strong and the wise have not the rod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To use on the dull and weak.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}