{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/the-old-snake-fence",
 "title": "The Old Snake Fence",
 "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": 7,
 "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": "In early times the pioneer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When a few acres he did clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He found an ample recompense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For splitting rails and making fence.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though it was crooked as a snake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And zigzag style did not awake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought it was a thing of beauty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet in its day it did its duty.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And though the old snake fence must fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas easy made, axe, wedge and maul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were all the tools the pioneer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bequired the old rail fence to rear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the old pioneer could boast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fence that did not need a post,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To build it now is waste of timber,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fertile lands it doth cumber.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And pine stump fence with its sharp roots",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will long endure and ward off brutes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the crops they ample shield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And do protect each separate field.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But old style fence doth waste much land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where weeds do grow and bush expand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thistle down doth blow from thence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So folks build wire and the board fence.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}