[
  {
    "title": "254. Caledonia: A Ballad",
    "author": "Robert Burns",
    "lines": [
      "THERE was once a day, but old Time wasythen young,",
      "  That brave Caledonia, the chief of her line,",
      "From some of your northern deities sprung,",
      "  (Who knows not that brave Caledonia’s divine?)",
      "From Tweed to the Orcades was her domain,",
      "  To hunt, or to pasture, or do what she would:",
      "Her heav’nly relations there fixed her reign,",
      "  And pledg’d her their godheads to warrant it good.",
      "",
      "",
      "A lambkin in peace, but a lion in war,",
      "  The pride of her kindred, the heroine grew:",
      "Her grandsire, old Odin, triumphantly swore,—",
      "  “Whoe’er shall provoke thee, th’ encounter shall rue!”",
      "With tillage or pasture at times she would sport,",
      "  To feed her fair flocks by her green rustling corn;",
      "But chiefly the woods were her fav’rite resort,",
      "  Her darling amusement, the hounds and the horn.",
      "",
      "",
      "Long quiet she reigned; till thitherward steers",
      "  A flight of bold eagles from Adria’s strand:",
      "Repeated, successive, for many long years,",
      "  They darken’d the air, and they plunder’d the land:",
      "Their pounces were murder, and terror their cry,",
      "  They’d conquer’d and ruin’d a world beside;",
      "She took to her hills, and her arrows let fly,",
      "  The daring invaders they fled or they died.",
      "",
      "",
      "The Cameleon-Savage disturb’d her repose,",
      "  With tumult, disquiet, rebellion, and strife;",
      "Provok’d beyond bearing, at last she arose,",
      "  And robb’d him at once of his hopes and his life:",
      "The Anglian lion, the terror of France,",
      "  Oft prowling, ensanguin’d the Tweed’s silver flood;",
      "But, taught by the bright Caledonian lance,",
      "  He learnèd to fear in his own native wood.",
      "",
      "",
      "The fell Harpy-raven took wing from the north,",
      "  The scourge of the seas, and the dread of the shore;",
      "The wild Scandinavian boar issued forth",
      "  To wanton in carnage and wallow in gore:",
      "O’er countries and kingdoms their fury prevail’d,",
      "  No arts could appease them, no arms could repel;",
      "But brave Caledonia in vain they assail’d,",
      "  As Largs well can witness, and Loncartie tell.",
      "",
      "",
      "Thus bold, independent, unconquer’d, and free,",
      "  Her bright course of glory for ever shall run:",
      "For brave Caledonia immortal must be;",
      "  I’ll prove it from Euclid as clear as the sun:",
      "Rectangle-triangle, the figure we’ll chuse:",
      "  The upright is Chance, and old Time is the base;",
      "But brave Caledonia’s the hypothenuse;",
      "  Then, ergo, she’ll match them, and match them always."
    ],
    "linecount": "48"
  }
]