[
  {
    "title": "A Tale (Epilogue to \"The Two Poets of Croisic.\")",
    "author": "Robert Browning",
    "lines": [
      "What a pretty tale you told me",
      "  Once upon a time",
      "--Said you found it somewhere (scold me!)",
      "  Was it prose or was it rhyme,",
      "Greek or Latin? Greek, you said,",
      "While your shoulder propped my head.",
      "",
      "Anyhow there's no forgetting",
      "  This much if no more,",
      "That a poet (pray, no petting!)",
      "  Yes, a bard, sir, famed of yore,",
      "Went where suchlike used to go,",
      "Singing for a prize, you know.",
      "",
      "Well, he had to sing, nor merely",
      "  Sing but play the lyre;",
      "Playing was important clearly",
      "  Quite as singing: I desire,",
      "Sir, you keep the fact in mind",
      "For a purpose that's behind.",
      "",
      "There stood he, while deep attention",
      "  Held the judges round,",
      "--Judges able, I should mention,",
      "  To detect the slightest sound",
      "Sung or played amiss: such ears",
      "Had old judges, it appears!",
      "",
      "None the less he sang out boldly,",
      "  Played in time and tune,",
      "Till the judges, weighing coldly",
      "  Each note's worth, seemed, late or soon,",
      "Sure to smile \"In vain one tries",
      "Picking faults out: take the prize!\"",
      "",
      "When, a mischief! Were they seven",
      "  Strings the lyre possessed?",
      "Oh, and afterwards eleven,",
      "  Thank you! Well, sir,--who had guessed",
      "Such ill luck in store?--it happed",
      "One of those same seven strings snapped.",
      "",
      "All was lost, then! No! a cricket",
      "  (What \"cicada\"? Pooh!)",
      "--Some mad thing that left its thicket",
      "  For mere love of music--flew",
      "With its little heart on fire,",
      "Lighted on the crippled lyre.",
      "",
      "So that when (Ah joy!) our singer",
      "  For his truant string",
      "Feels with disconcerted finger,",
      "  What does cricket else but fling",
      "Fiery heart forth, sound the note",
      "Wanted by the throbbing throat?",
      "",
      "Ay and, ever to the ending,",
      "  Cricket chirps at need,",
      "Executes the hand's intending,",
      "  Promptly, perfectly,--indeed",
      "Saves the singer from defeat",
      "With her chirrup low and sweet.",
      "",
      "Till, at ending, all the judges",
      "  Cry with one assent",
      "\"Take the prize--a prize who grudges",
      "  Such a voice and instrument?",
      "Why, we took your lyre for harp,",
      "So it shrilled us forth F sharp!\"",
      "",
      "Did the conqueror spurn the creature",
      "  Once its service done?",
      "That's no such uncommon feature",
      "  In the case when Music's son",
      "Finds his Lotte's power too spent",
      "For aiding soul development.",
      "",
      "No! This other, on returning",
      "  Homeward, prize in hand,",
      "Satisfied his bosom's yearning:",
      "   (Sir, I hope you understand!)",
      "--Said \"Some record there must be",
      "Of this cricket's help to me!\"",
      "",
      "So, he made himself a statue:",
      "   Marble stood, life size;",
      "On the lyre, he pointed at you,",
      "   Perched his partner in the prize;",
      "Never more apart you found",
      "Her, he throned, from him, she crowned.",
      "",
      "That's the tale: its application?",
      "   Somebody I know",
      "Hopes one day for reputation",
      "  Thro' his poetry that's--Oh,",
      "All so learned and so wise",
      "And deserving of a prize!",
      "",
      "If he gains one, will some ticket",
      "   When his statue's built,",
      "Tell the gazer \"'Twas a cricket",
      "   Helped my crippled lyre, whose lilt",
      "Sweet and low, when strength usurped",
      "Softness' place i' the scale, she chirped?",
      "",
      "\"For as victory was nighest,",
      "  While I sang and played,--",
      "With my lyre at lowest, highest,",
      "   Right alike,--one string that made",
      "'Love' sound soft was snapt in twain",
      "Never to be heard again,--",
      "",
      "\"Had not a kind cricket fluttered,",
      "   Perched upon the place",
      "Vacant left, and duly uttered",
      "   'Love, Love, Love,' whene'er the bass",
      "Asked the treble to atone",
      "For its somewhat sombre drone.\"",
      "",
      "But you don't know music! Wherefore",
      "   Keep on casting pearls",
      "To a--poet? All I care for",
      "   Is--to tell him that a girl's",
      "\"Love\" comes aptly in when gruff",
      "Grows his singing, (There, enough!)"
    ],
    "linecount": "108"
  }
]