[
  {
    "title": "Israfel",
    "author": "Edgar Allan Poe",
    "lines": [
      "In Heaven a spirit doth dwell",
      "  \"Whose heart-strings are a lute;\"",
      "None sing so wildly well",
      "As the angel Israfel,",
      "And the giddy Stars (so legends tell),",
      "Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell",
      "  Of his voice, all mute.",
      "",
      "Tottering above",
      "  In her highest noon,",
      "  The enamoured Moon",
      "Blushes with love,",
      "  While, to listen, the red levin",
      "  (With the rapid Pleiads, even,",
      "  Which were seven),",
      "  Pauses in Heaven.",
      "",
      "And they say (the starry choir",
      "  And the other listening things)",
      "That Israfeli's fire",
      "Is owing to that lyre",
      "  By which he sits and sings--",
      "The trembling living wire",
      "Of those unusual strings.",
      "",
      "But the skies that angel trod,",
      "  Where deep thoughts are a duty--",
      "Where Love's a grow-up God--",
      "  Where the Houri glances are",
      "Imbued with all the beauty",
      "  Which we worship in a star.",
      "",
      "Therefore, thou art not wrong,",
      "  Israfeli, who despisest",
      "An unimpassioned song;",
      "To thee the laurels belong,",
      "  Best bard, because the wisest!",
      "Merrily live and long!",
      "",
      "The ecstasies above",
      "  With thy burning measures suit--",
      "Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,",
      "  With the fervor of thy lute--",
      "  Well may the stars be mute!",
      "",
      "Yes, Heaven is thine; but this",
      "  Is a world of sweets and sours;",
      "  Our flowers are merely--flowers,",
      "And the shadow of thy perfect bliss",
      "  Is the sunshine of ours.",
      "",
      "If I could dwell",
      "Where Israfel",
      "  Hath dwelt, and he where I,",
      "He might not sing so wildly well",
      "  A mortal melody,",
      "While a bolder note than this might swell",
      "  From my lyre within the sky."
    ],
    "linecount": "51"
  }
]