{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/golden-egg",
 "title": "Golden Egg",
 "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": 45,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In ancient times we have been told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A goose did lay an egg of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She did produce one every day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So regular this goose did lay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But her stupid foolish master",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wanted her to lay them faster,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he at last the goose did kill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gold grist no more came to his mill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But a strange tale we now unfold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In California’s mines of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There they keep both hens and chickens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mong the gravel scratching pickings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But hens do find the golden shiner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is too heavy for their dinner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For it they cannot well digest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As it lies solid in their breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then they are slain and you behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their craw the shining gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made up of particles so fine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The purest gold in all the mine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then how happy is the miner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he has sweet fowl for dinner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he doth find within its craw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little golden bonanza.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And in Ontario the hen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is worthy of the poet’s pen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For she doth well deserve the praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bestowed on her for her fine lays.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}