{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/a-pleasing-illusion",
 "title": "A Pleasing Illusion",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "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": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I saw a pleasing sight this spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem’d like a hundred ducks on wing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fluttering o’er the crystal water,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I felt like rippling o’er with laughter.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the truth it did awaken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In silver ducks I was mistaken;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was the sunbeam’s merry dancing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That on the water I saw glancing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rejoicing that from bonds of ice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They were free these pearls of price;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though banks were bound with fringe of snow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which gave more lustre to the glow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So ’tis no wonder that we sing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the glories of the spring;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each day fresh beauties will be seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When fields are cover’d o’er with green.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Adieu to Winter brings no grief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For we do long for bud and leaf;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which are brought out by sunny showers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And covers landscape with the flowers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sun is glorious orb of day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Refulgent is each sparkling ray;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The moon she is the Queen of Night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enthroned among the stars so bright.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}