{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/opening-ode",
 "title": "Opening Ode",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames",
 "book_slug": "musings-on-the-banks-of-canadian-thames",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1884,
  "venue": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542"
  ]
 },
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A horrid goat we have to ride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With long horns and shaggy hide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that the beast we have to stride well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without saddle or a bridle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Friends, with pleasure we do meet you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with hearty welcome greet you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With many we have met before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So pleasantly in days of yore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But some new faces we do find,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hope they’ll criticise us kind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abroad for talent we don’t roam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But friends and neighbors here at home",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Will give us now a splendid treat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With speeches good and songs so sweet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And instruments whose soothing charms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will banish cares and our alarms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In friendly deeds they lead the van,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both Oxford and Samaritan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To relieve brothers in distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bounteously the widows bless.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}