{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/english-thornton",
 "title": "English Thornton",
 "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": 160,
 "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": 54,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Here! You sons of the men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who fought with Washington at Valley Forge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whipped Black Hawk at Starved Rock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise! Do battle with the descendants of those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who bought land in the loop when it was waste sand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sold blankets and guns to the army of Grant,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sat in legislatures in the early days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taking bribes from the railroads!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise! Do battle with the fops and bluffs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pretenders and figurantes of the society column",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the yokel souls whose daughters marry counts;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the parasites on great ideas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the noisy riders of great causes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the heirs of ancient thefts.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise! And make the city yours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the State yours⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You who are sons of the hardy yeomanry of the forties!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By God! If you do not destroy these vermin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My avenging ghost will wipe out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your city and your state.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}