{
 "id": "john-donne/the-triple-fool",
 "title": "The Triple Fool",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Donne",
 "poet_slug": "john-donne",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death",
 "book_slug": "poems-1633",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Songs and Sonnets",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1633,
  "venue": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1633)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/donnepoems"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-donne_poetry",
  "file": "songs-and-sonnets.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie00chamgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie01chamgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I am two fools, I know,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For loving, and for saying so",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In whining poetry;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But where’s that wise man, that would not be I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If she would not deny?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Then as th’ earth’s inward narrow crooked lanes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do purge sea water’s fretful salt away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought, if I could draw my pains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through rhyme’s vexation, I should them allay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when I have done so,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some man, his art and voice to show,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth set and sing my pain;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And, by delighting many, frees again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief, which verse did restrain.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not of such as pleases when ’tis read.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Both are increasèd by such songs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For both their triumphs so are published,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who are a little wise, the best fools be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}