{
 "id": "edward-thomas/an-old-song-2",
 "title": "An Old Song",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Last Poems",
 "book_slug": "last-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 50,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1918,
  "venue": "Last Poems (1918)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 75,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I was not apprenticed nor ever dwelt in famous Lincolnshire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve served one master ill and well much more than seven year;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never took up to poaching as you shall quickly find;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I roamed where nobody had a right but keepers and squires, and there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sought for nests, wild flowers, oak sticks, and moles, both far and near.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had to run from farmers, and learnt the Lincolnshire song:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I took those walks years after, talking with friend or dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or solitary musing; but when the moon shone clear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had no joy or sorrow that could not be expressed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By “ ’Tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Since then I’ve thrown away a chance to fight a gamekeeper;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I less often trespass, and what I see or hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is mostly from the road or path by day: yet still I sing:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For if I am contented, at home or anywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or if I sigh for I know not what, or my heart beats with some fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is a strange kind of delight to sing or whistle just:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And with this melody on my lips and no one by to care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indoors, or out on shiny nights or dark in open air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am for a moment made a man that sings out of his heart:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}