{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/electric-light",
 "title": "Electric Light",
 "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": 68,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 29,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 1,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 2.6 character advances (~1.3 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When the great Bulwer’s pen did trace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The history of the coming race",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His hero to us he hath unfurled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The glories of his new found world.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This bold traveller be did venture",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far below our world’s centre;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He entered through an ancient mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to us doth new world define.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once all was discord and fierce jars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Continuous engaged in wars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till they discovered great vrill power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then wars did cease from that same hour.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mighty bolts from it were hurled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would soon have laid waste the world;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So for world’s preservation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At once they stopped desolation.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All wars by them are now despised",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unfit for nation civilized;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their peaceful glories they do sing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fly on artificial wing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Great blazing artificial light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It ever burns both day and night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For they have neither sun nor moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But radiant, always ’tis high noon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When we beheld the glorious sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High in the air did shine so bright;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seemed that it could banish night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great refulgent electric light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But after all, ’tis children’s play,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Compared with the great orb of day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or when the moon it doth shine bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stars do beautify the night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}