{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/four-acre-farm",
 "title": "Four Acre Farm",
 "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": 23,
 "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": 45,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This is a tale, but it is truth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of maiden lady named Ruth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She owned a small four acre farm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which possessed some rural charm.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This maiden she was past her youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But none e’re fell in love with Ruth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though you must not infer from thence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That she possessed not grace nor sense.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She was handsome in her day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But beauty quickly fades away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good vegetables and fine roots",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She growed and choicest kind of fruits.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And a first-class good milch cow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She kept, and a fine breeding sow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her butter high price did command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cow fed on best of pasture land.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On it was pond where swam her geese,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From small flock of sheep she sheared fleece,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thus she passed year after year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her cares they kept her in good cheer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each year she raised large chicken brood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for them she grew lots of food,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In winter time it was her rule",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To knit and spin up her own wool.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thus her uneventful life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth pass without jar or strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis seldom she e’re feels alarm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But quietly tills her little farm.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To plow her little fields of course",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She does require to drive her horse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This little pony looks quite smart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawing old maid in little cart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}