{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/the-shires-on-the-moray-frith",
 "title": "The Shires on the Moray Frith",
 "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": 57,
 "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Worthy of either song or story",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are the shires round Frith of Moray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here lies the valley of Strathspey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Famed for its music, lively, gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elgin cathedral’s ’prentice aisle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is glory of that ruined pile.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What modern chisel now could trace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fine sculpture of that ancient place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Forres famed for Sweyn’s stane",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In honor of that kingly Dane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Graved with warriors runes and rhymes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long prior to historic times,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For a thousand years its been forgot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who was victor Dane or Scot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is the country of McBeth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where good King Duncan met his death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And barren heath that place of fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood witches cauldron of Shakespeare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nairn’s Cawdor castle strong remains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full worthy of the ancient Thanes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nestled ’neath the hills and bens",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Queen of the moors, the lochs and glens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full proudly stands in vale of bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chief Highland town of Inverness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near here the famous falls of Foyers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Burns and others tuned their lyres,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the fatal field of dark Culloden",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where doughty clans were once down trodden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here men yet wear the tartan plaid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ready to join the Highland Brigade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the Frith you look across",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eye beholds Sutherland and Ross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Duke has harnessed mighty team,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Plows hills and rocks and moors by steam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps it may in part atone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For cruel clearings days bygone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Cromarty, whose wondrous mason,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First learned his geologic lesson,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friends may rear a stately pillar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old red sand stone of Hugh Miller,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ben Wyvis towers like monarch crowned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conspicuous o’er the hills around,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With crest ’ere white with driven snow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strathpeffer’s water cure below.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}