{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/blanket-shield",
 "title": "Blanket Shield",
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When blanket round us we do fold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It doth keep out the wind and cold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when house is near to great fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wet blankets save from ruin dire.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A General in Mexico",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Advanced against Indian foe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Indians did hold the field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Protected by wet blanket shield.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While Mexicans by hundreds fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each pierced by an Indian ball;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wet blanket it must hang quite loose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or for protection ’tis no use.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus Indians rushed o’er the field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And caused the Mexicans to yield;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The savages they were more wise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than Christian foe did them despise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As a shield we high must rank it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So light you cannot outflank it;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bullets glance off from the blanket,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For its uses we must thank it.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}