{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/adventure-on-a-raft",
 "title": "Adventure on a Raft",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames",
 "book_slug": "musings-on-the-banks-of-canadian-thames",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 34,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "“Truth is strange, stranger than fiction.”",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1884,
  "venue": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542"
  ]
 },
 "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": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A man rafting down the river,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time he will remember ever,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He shouted, “Pole, the raft to land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or we’ll be wrecked upon the strand.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But captain gave him a reply",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all danger he would defy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, in another moment more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Part was wrecked upon the shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a Nova Scotian bay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other half was borne away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enough to make a person shiver,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man was drifted out of river,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All alone on the broken raft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Driven where e’er the wind did waft;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right out on the open sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the storm did blow so free.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No shelter from the wind or wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought the gulf would be his grave.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He had no food, life to sustain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He laid him down, there to remain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What happened he did know no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But old man on Prince Edwards shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While gazing through his good spy glass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What do I see?” he cried, “Alas!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some poor man, and I fear he’s dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drifting to my humble shed.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The body acted like a sail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wafted raft before the gale;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He called on men to man a boat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And quickly crew had it afloat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in haste full soon they bore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His lifeless body to the shore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But old man did them then desire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To place body near the fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wrap it up in blankets warm⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which did act like to a charm⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soon the breath it did return.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With gratitude his heart did burn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think he was again restored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto his friends, whom he adored;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But worse misfortunes him befell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet he bears up ’neath troubles well.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}