{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/tramp-and-fish",
 "title": "Tramp and Fish",
 "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": 50,
 "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": 38,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A hungry tramp did long for dish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he stole a big bunch of fish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he full soon did come to grief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was quick captured as a thief.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And brought before the magistrate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So judge he would pronounce his fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Judge asked him how he came by fish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thief said for them he did wish,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The best fish ever came from brook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I own, my Lord, I did them hook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said constable, he speaks what’s true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you must give the devil his due.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then judge did constable rebuke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He owns fish if he did them hook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He has not broken any clause",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know of in our fishery laws.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Unless you can show this reason,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He has hooked them out of season,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your duty you have thus mistook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For man had right the fish to hook.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fishing here it is not treason,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him you had no right to seize on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the poor man did fish hook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He had a right the same to cook.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}