{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/tile-drains",
 "title": "Tile Drains",
 "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": 68,
 "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": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis sad to see the richest land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Barren where water it doth stand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You seek for crop but all in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For land requires the under drain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But you cause mother earth to smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When ventilated by the tile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before, she felt sour and old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drains warm her heart and expel cold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Porous now are all her veins,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From filtration of the drains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And each tiny sparkling rill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sends through her heart a pleasing thrill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Before, it was cold and crusty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it was both sour and musty;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now it doth beat high with hopes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rejoicing in her mighty crops.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tile must be laid straight and level,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But of course with a slight bevel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sloping towards ditch or creek,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where way to ocean it doth seek.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis true that fiercer rages floods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since country it was stripp’d of woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rivers they do broader spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With numerous tile drains quicker fed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}