[
  {
    "title": "Merry Autumn",
    "author": "Paul Laurence Dunbar",
    "lines": [
      "It's all a farce,—these tales they tell",
      "  About the breezes sighing,",
      "And moans astir o'er field and dell,",
      "  Because the year is dying.",
      "",
      "Such principles are most absurd,—",
      "  I care not who first taught 'em;",
      "There's nothing known to beast or bird",
      "  To make a solemn autumn.",
      "",
      "In solemn times, when grief holds sway",
      "  With countenance distressing,",
      "You'll note the more of black and gray",
      "  Will then be used in dressing.",
      "",
      "Now purple tints are all around;",
      "  The sky is blue and mellow;",
      "And e'en the grasses turn the ground",
      "  From modest green to yellow.",
      "",
      "The seed burs all with laughter crack",
      "  On featherweed and jimson;",
      "And leaves that should be dressed in black",
      "  Are all decked out in crimson.",
      "",
      "A butterfly goes winging by;",
      "  A singing bird comes after;",
      "And Nature, all from earth to sky,",
      "  Is bubbling o'er with laughter.",
      "",
      "The ripples wimple on the rills,",
      "  Like sparkling little lasses;",
      "The sunlight runs along the hills,",
      "  And laughs among the grasses.",
      "",
      "The earth is just so full of fun",
      "  It really can't contain it;",
      "And streams of mirth so freely run",
      "  The heavens seem to rain it.",
      "",
      "Don't talk to me of solemn days",
      "  In autumn's time of splendor,",
      "Because the sun shows fewer rays,",
      "  And these grow slant and slender.",
      "",
      "Why, it's the climax of the year,—",
      "  The highest time of living!—",
      "Till naturally its bursting cheer",
      "  Just melts into thanksgiving."
    ],
    "linecount": "40"
  }
]