[
  {
    "title": "A Sea Dirge",
    "author": "Lewis Carroll",
    "lines": [
      "There are certain things--as, a spider, a ghost,",
      "  The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three--",
      "That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most",
      "     Is a thing they call the Sea.",
      "",
      "Pour some salt water over the floor--",
      "  Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be:",
      "Suppose it extended a mile or more,",
      "     That's very like the Sea.",
      "",
      "Beat a dog till it howls outright--",
      "  Cruel, but all very well for a spree:",
      "Suppose that he did so day and night,",
      "     That would be like the Sea.",
      "",
      "I had a vision of nursery-maids;",
      "  Tens of thousands passed by me--",
      "All leading children with wooden spades,",
      "     And this was by the Sea.",
      "",
      "Who invented those spades of wood?",
      "  Who was it cut them out of the tree?",
      "None, I think, but an idiot could--",
      "     Or one that loved the Sea.",
      "",
      "It is pleasant and dreamy, no doubt, to float",
      "  With \"thoughts as boundless, and souls as free\":",
      "But, suppose you are very unwell in the boat,",
      "     How do you like the Sea?",
      "",
      "There is an insect that people avoid",
      "  (Whence is derived the verb \"to flee\").",
      "Where have you been by it most annoyed?",
      "     In lodgings by the Sea.",
      "",
      "If you like your coffee with sand for dregs,",
      "  A decided hint of salt in your tea,",
      "And a fishy taste in the very eggs--",
      "     By all means choose the Sea.",
      "",
      "And if, with these dainties to drink and eat,",
      "  You prefer not a vestige of grass or tree,",
      "And a chronic state of wet in your feet,",
      "     Then--I recommend the Sea.",
      "",
      "For I have friends who dwell by the coast--",
      "  Pleasant friends they are to me!",
      "It is when I am with them I wonder most",
      "     That anyone likes the Sea.",
      "",
      "They take me a walk: though tired and stiff,",
      "  To climb the heights I madly agree;",
      "And, after a tumble or so from the cliff,",
      "     They kindly suggest the Sea.",
      "",
      "I try the rocks, and I think it cool",
      "  That they laugh with such an excess of glee,",
      "As I heavily slip into every pool",
      "     That skirts the cold cold Sea."
    ],
    "linecount": "48"
  },
  {
    "title": "15. Winter: A Dirge",
    "author": "Robert Burns",
    "lines": [
      "THE WINTRY west extends his blast,",
      "  And hail and rain does blaw;",
      "Or the stormy north sends driving forth",
      "  The blinding sleet and snaw:",
      "While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down,",
      "  And roars frae bank to brae;",
      "And bird and beast in covert rest,",
      "  And pass the heartless day.",
      "",
      "",
      "“The sweeping blast, the sky o’ercast,”",
      "  The joyless winter day",
      "Let others fear, to me more dear",
      "  Than all the pride of May:",
      "The tempest’s howl, it soothes my soul,",
      "  My griefs it seems to join;",
      "The leafless trees my fancy please,",
      "  Their fate resembles mine!",
      "",
      "",
      "Thou Power Supreme, whose mighty scheme",
      "  These woes of mine fulfil,",
      "Here firm I rest; they must be best,",
      "  Because they are Thy will!",
      "Then all I want—O do Thou grant",
      "  This one request of mine!—",
      "Since to enjoy Thou dost deny,",
      "  Assist me to resign."
    ],
    "linecount": "24"
  },
  {
    "title": "Autumn: A Dirge",
    "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley",
    "lines": [
      "The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing,",
      "The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying,",
      "And the Year",
      "On the earth her death-bed, in a shroud of leaves dead,",
      "Is lying.",
      "Come, Months, come away,",
      "From November to May,",
      "In your saddest array;",
      "Follow the bier",
      "Of the dead cold Year,",
      "And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre.",
      "",
      "The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling,",
      "The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling",
      "For the Year;",
      "The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone",
      "To his dwelling;",
      "Come, Months, come away;",
      "Put on white, black, and gray;",
      "Let your light sisters play--",
      "Ye, follow the bier",
      "Of the dead cold Year,",
      "And make her grave green with tear on tear."
    ],
    "linecount": "22"
  },
  {
    "title": "A Dirge",
    "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley",
    "lines": [
      "Rough wind, that moanest loud",
      "Grief too sad for song;",
      "Wild wind, when sullen cloud",
      "Knells all the night long;",
      "Sad storm whose tears are vain,",
      "Bare woods, whose branches strain,",
      "Deep caves and dreary main,--",
      "Wail, for the world's wrong!"
    ],
    "linecount": "8"
  }
]