{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/things-should-be-judged-by-merit",
 "title": "Things Should Be Judged by Merit",
 "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": 39,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A picture hung in a public hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it was much admired by all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Painted by a true artist’s hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The subject it was truly grand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Its fame o’er the whole world resounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Valued at ten thousand pounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beauteous lady none ’ere passed her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was the work of an old master.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At last a critic keen did gaze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saw ’twas work of modern days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then quick it was pronounced a daub,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And artist but a money grab.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The true, the noble and the grand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will lend to struggling helping hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then let no man of dues be shorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If he a subject doth adorn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}