{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/lay-of-the-spring",
 "title": "Lay of the Spring",
 "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": 49,
 "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": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Let others sing their favourite lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From early morn till close of day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More useful themes engage our pen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We sing the lay of our good hen.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For she doth lay each morn an egg,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it is full and large and big,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abroad she doth never travel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Happy she when scratching gravel.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And she loud cackles songs of praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every morn when e’er she lays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proud she is when she finds pickings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to feed her brood of chickens.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It greatly puzzled her one day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When she found white nest egg of clay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She knew some one did trick play her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For she was no brick layer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Vain and stately male bird stalks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leading his hens along the walks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proudly each feather in his tail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Makes rival roosters for to quail.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Our muse now soars on feathery wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cheerful it doth hail the spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bringing the sunshine and showers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Green grass and buds and leafy bowers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So pleasant is the month of May,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When bushes shoot out blooming spray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Ere spring we’re tired of winter’s white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spring’s varied colours do delight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}