{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/great-fire-in-michigan",
 "title": "Great Fire in Michigan",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Farmer’s Loss",
 "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": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Many a homestead it was burned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a family sadly mourned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The death of those were near and dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But fire the tangled bush did clear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And soon our country was more wealthy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now already ’tis more healthy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas cheap way matted brush to clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But for the loss of friends so near.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We lost our houso and barn and corn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But for long we did not mourn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there came quick to our relief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The nation’s aid to soothe our grief.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It seems to me now but a dream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How our lives were saved in a broad stream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our cattle and horse there we drove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bears and wolves were there, by jove.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though all were huddled in a jam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each wild beast was as quiet as lamb;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there we were for three whole days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surrounded by the furious blaze.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Worse than the fire the awful smoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To death by hundreds it did choke;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many thought it was judgment day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When Heaven and earth would pass away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}