[
  {
    "title": "I Would I Were a Careless Child",
    "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron",
    "lines": [
      "I would I were a careless child,",
      "  Still dwelling in my Highland cave,",
      "Or roaming through the dusky wild,",
      "  Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave;",
      "The cumbrous pomp of Saxon pride,",
      "  Accords not with the freeborn soul,",
      "Which loves the mountain's craggy side,",
      "  And seeks the rocks where billows roll.",
      "",
      "Fortune! take back these cultur'd lands,",
      "  Take back this name of splendid sound!",
      "I hate the touch of servile hands,",
      "  I hate the slaves that cringe around:",
      "Place me among the rocks I love,",
      "  Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar;",
      "I ask but this--again to rove",
      "  Through scenes my youth hath known before.",
      "",
      "Few are my years, and yet I feel",
      "  The World was ne'er design'd for me:",
      "Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal",
      "  The hour when man must cease to be?",
      "Once I beheld a splendid dream,",
      "  A visionary scene of bliss:",
      "Truth!--wherefore did thy hated beam",
      "  Awake me to a world like this?",
      "",
      "I lov'd--but those I lov'd are gone;",
      "  Had friends--my early friends are fled:",
      "How cheerless feels the heart alone,",
      "  When all its former hopes are dead!",
      "Though gay companions, o'er the bowl",
      "  Dispel awhile the sense of ill;",
      "Though Pleasure stirs the maddening soul,",
      "  The heart--the heart--is lonely still.",
      "",
      "How dull! to hear the voice of those",
      "  Whom Rank or Chance, whom Wealth or Power,",
      "Have made, though neither friends nor foes,",
      "  Associates of the festive hour.",
      "Give me again a faithful few,",
      "  In years and feelings still the same,",
      "And I will fly the midnight crew,",
      "  Where boist'rous Joy is but a name.",
      "",
      "And Woman, lovely Woman! thou,",
      "  My hope, my comforter, my all!",
      "How cold must be my bosom now,",
      "  When e'en thy smiles begin to pall!",
      "Without a sigh would I resign,",
      "  This busy scene of splendid Woe,",
      "To make that calm contentment mine,",
      "  Which Virtue knows, or seems to know.",
      "",
      "Fain would I fly the haunts of men -",
      "  I seek to shun, not hate mankind;",
      "My breast requires the sullen glen,",
      "  Whose gloom may suit a darken'd mind.",
      "Oh! that to me the wings were given,",
      "  Which bear the turtle to her nest!",
      "Then would I cleave the vault of Heaven,",
      "  To flee away, and be at rest."
    ],
    "linecount": "56"
  }
]