[
  {
    "title": "144. A Winter Night",
    "author": "Robert Burns",
    "lines": [
      "WHEN biting Boreas, fell and dour,",
      "Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r;",
      "When Phoebus gies a short-liv’d glow’r,",
      "                  Far south the lift,",
      "Dim-dark’ning thro’ the flaky show’r,",
      "                  Or whirling drift:",
      "",
      "",
      "Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,",
      "Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,",
      "While burns, wi’ snawy wreaths up-choked,",
      "                  Wild-eddying swirl;",
      "Or, thro’ the mining outlet bocked,",
      "                  Down headlong hurl:",
      "",
      "",
      "List’ning the doors an’ winnocks rattle,",
      "I thought me on the ourie cattle,",
      "Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle",
      "                  O’ winter war,",
      "And thro’ the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle",
      "                  Beneath a scar.",
      "",
      "",
      "Ilk happing bird,—wee, helpless thing!",
      "That, in the merry months o’ spring,",
      "Delighted me to hear thee sing,",
      "                  What comes o’ thee?",
      "Whare wilt thou cow’r thy chittering wing,",
      "                  An’ close thy e’e?",
      "",
      "",
      "Ev’n you, on murdering errands toil’d,",
      "Lone from your savage homes exil’d,",
      "The blood-stain’d roost, and sheep-cote spoil’d",
      "                  My heart forgets,",
      "While pityless the tempest wild",
      "                  Sore on you beats!",
      "",
      "",
      "Now Phoebe in her midnight reign,",
      "Dark-muff’d, view’d the dreary plain;",
      "Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train,",
      "                  Rose in my soul,",
      "When on my ear this plantive strain,",
      "                  Slow, solemn, stole:—",
      "",
      "",
      "“Blow, blow, ye winds, with heavier gust!",
      "And freeze, thou bitter-biting frost!",
      "Descend, ye chilly, smothering snows!",
      "Not all your rage, as now united, shows",
      "  More hard unkindness unrelenting,",
      "  Vengeful malice unrepenting.",
      "Than heaven-illumin’d Man on brother Man bestows!",
      "",
      "",
      "“See stern Oppression’s iron grip,",
      "    Or mad Ambition’s gory hand,",
      "Sending, like blood-hounds from the slip,",
      "    Woe, Want, and Murder o’er a land!",
      "  Ev’n in the peaceful rural vale,",
      "  Truth, weeping, tells the mournful tale,",
      "How pamper’d Luxury, Flatt’ry by her side,",
      "  The parasite empoisoning her ear,",
      "  With all the servile wretches in the rear,",
      "Looks o’er proud Property, extended wide;",
      "  And eyes the simple, rustic hind,",
      "    Whose toil upholds the glitt’ring show—",
      "  A creature of another kind,",
      "  Some coarser substance, unrefin’d—",
      "Plac’d for her lordly use thus far, thus vile, below!",
      "",
      "",
      "“Where, where is Love’s fond, tender throe,",
      "  With lordly Honour’s lofty brow,",
      "    The pow’rs you proudly own?",
      "  Is there, beneath Love’s noble name,",
      "  Can harbour, dark, the selfish aim,",
      "    To bless himself alone?",
      "  Mark maiden-innocence a prey",
      "    To love-pretending snares:",
      "  This boasted Honour turns away,",
      "  Shunning soft Pity’s rising sway,",
      "Regardless of the tears and unavailing pray’rs!",
      "  Perhaps this hour, in Misery’s squalid nest,",
      "  She strains your infant to her joyless breast,",
      "And with a mother’s fears shrinks at the rocking blast!",
      "",
      "",
      "“Oh ye! who, sunk in beds of down,",
      "    Feel not a want but what yourselves create,",
      "    Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate,",
      "  Whom friends and fortune quite disown!",
      "Ill-satisfy’d keen nature’s clamorous call,",
      "  Stretch’d on his straw, he lays himself to sleep;",
      "While through the ragged roof and chinky wall,",
      "    Chill, o’er his slumbers, piles the drifty heap!",
      "  Think on the dungeon’s grim confine,",
      "  Where Guilt and poor Misfortune pine!",
      "  Guilt, erring man, relenting view,",
      "  But shall thy legal rage pursue",
      "  The wretch, already crushed low",
      "  By cruel Fortune’s undeserved blow?",
      "Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress;",
      "A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!”",
      "",
      "",
      "    I heard nae mair, for Chanticleer",
      "      Shook off the pouthery snaw,",
      "    And hail’d the morning with a cheer,",
      "      A cottage-rousing craw.",
      "    But deep this truth impress’d my mind—",
      "      Thro’ all His works abroad,",
      "    The heart benevolent and kind",
      "      The most resembles God."
    ],
    "linecount": "96"
  }
]