{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/bear-hunt",
 "title": "Bear Hunt",
 "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": 30,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Two youths came over from York state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bill Brown and Tom Dawes his mate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For many months they were wishing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sport of hunting and of fishing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They rowed along the lake in punt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When tired of fishing they would hunt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At river’s mouth they caught fine trout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In woods close by they saw bear’s snout.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In front of her play little chubs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fat and slick her darling cubs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kind thoughts in their breasts they smother",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cruelly they shoot the mother.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And bullet fearful tore her jaws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bloody wound, but with her paws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Erect in air an awful sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was prepared for her young to fight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But this did not daunt bold Bill Brown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With club he tried to knock her down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she gave him an awful hug,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With paws she at him fierce did tug.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He would been smothered but for Dawes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who rescued him from her great paws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With club he knocked her on the crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thus he saved the life of Brown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She rose again with savage frown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And quickly broke two ribs for Brown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His clothes were all torn with her claws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She smeared with blood both Brown and Dawes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Dawes now quick doth end the strife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By stabbing her with hunting knife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now around this hunter bold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His bear skin coat keeps out the cold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}