{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/snake-and-potato-bug",
 "title": "Snake and Potato Bug",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "A True Tale",
 "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": 40,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Some poets they abroad do roam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But we find themes are near to home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As we do seldom travel far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is a song of a glass jar.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Snake of species of the copper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on its head there was live hopper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For we saw that funny sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a store, it was last night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There in water was a snake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a bug so wide awake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was afraid that he would drown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So he clomb up on the snake’s crown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This snake it is near a foot long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which doth suffer this great wrong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It thinks the bug wants it to throttle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This makes it wriggle in the bottle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But fondly the kind hearted bug,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It doth its preserver hug,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the bug when on the water",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is only but a squatter.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And hath taken up homestead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the top of the snake’s head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the waters it doth float",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Safe and happy on this boat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}