{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/duties-of-life",
 "title": "Duties of Life",
 "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": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Life is greatly what we make it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through good and ill we must take it;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we should not troubles borrow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But strive to banish all our sorrow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each man for life should choose a mate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And true love should cultivate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For women unto us are given,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To transform the earth to Heaven.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Abroad the men should never roam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But make a Paradise of home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Domestic bliss is truest joy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wife and little girl and boy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But all need to be forgiven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to put their trust in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The truest joys are above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obtained alone but through Christ’s Love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While doing right if you seem to fail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You must not for a moment quail;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But at once banish all your fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Press nobly on in your career.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "More honor far then you will gain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because you strove right to obtain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as you have been dutiful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve won good, true and beautiful.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}