{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/lightning-rod-agent",
 "title": "Lightning Rod Agent",
 "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": 90,
 "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": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "An agent with both smiles and nods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Asked Jones to buy his lightning rods;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Jones, “You have made a blunder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I fear not lightning but the thunder.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Others you may go a frightening,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I tremble not at the lightning;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those that are scared at them, I wonder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I own I dread the thunder.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I know,” said agent. “It is true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thunder’s most dangerous of the two”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Jones, “Set me up thunder rods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from my mind it will take loads.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Said agent, “Lightning easy glides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er these brass tips it smoothly slides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when the thunder loudly rolls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These nickel tips it soon controls.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Jones, you are a man of sense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You see thunder rods are more expense”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Jones, “I care not for the cost,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Safety is what I prize the most.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Said agent, “Biggest bolt of thunder",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will be harmless as coal cinder;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You then can smile while each explodes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When we get up your thunder rods.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}