[
  {
    "title": "Spear Thistle",
    "author": "John Clare",
    "lines": [
      "Where the broad sheepwalk bare and brown",
      "  [Yields] scant grass pining after showers,",
      "And winds go fanning up and down",
      "  The little strawy bents and nodding flowers,",
      "There the huge thistle, spurred with many thorns,",
      "The suncrackt upland's russet swells adorns.",
      "",
      "Not undevoid of beauty there they come,",
      "  Armed warriors, waiting neither suns nor showers,",
      "Guarding the little clover plots to bloom",
      "  While sheep nor oxen dare not crop their flowers",
      "Unsheathing their own knobs of tawny flowers",
      "When summer cometh in her hottest hours.",
      "",
      "The pewit, swopping up and down",
      "  And screaming round the passer bye,",
      "Or running oer the herbage brown",
      "  With copple crown uplifted high,",
      "Loves in its clumps to make a home",
      "Where danger seldom cares to come.",
      "",
      "The yellowhammer, often prest",
      "  For spot to build and be unseen,",
      "Will in its shelter trust her nest",
      "  When fields and meadows glow with green;",
      "And larks, though paths go closely bye,",
      "Will in its shade securely lie.",
      "",
      "The partridge too, that scarce can trust",
      "  The open downs to be at rest,",
      "Will in its clumps lie down, and dust",
      "  And prune its horseshoe-circled breast,",
      "And oft in shining fields of green",
      "Will lay and raise its brood unseen.",
      "",
      "The sheep when hunger presses sore",
      "  May nip the clover round its nest;",
      "But soon the thistle wounding sore",
      "  Relieves it from each brushing guest,",
      "That leaves a bit of wool behind,",
      "The yellowhammer loves to find.",
      "",
      "The horse will set his foot and bite",
      "  Close to the ground lark's guarded nest",
      "And snort to meet the prickly sight;",
      "  He fans the feathers of her breast--",
      "Yet thistles prick so deep that he",
      "Turns back and leaves her dwelling free.",
      "",
      "Its prickly knobs the dews of morn",
      "  Doth bead with dressing rich to see,",
      "When threads doth hang from thorn to thorn",
      "  Like the small spinner's tapestry;",
      "And from the flowers a sultry smell",
      "Comes that agrees with summer well.",
      "",
      "The bee will make its bloom a bed,",
      "  The humble bee in tawny brown;",
      "And one in jacket fringed with red",
      "  Will rest upon its velvet down",
      "When overtaken in the rain,",
      "And wait till sunshine comes again.",
      "",
      "And there are times when travel goes",
      "  Along the sheep tracks' beaten ways,",
      "Then pleasure many a praise bestows",
      "  Upon its blossoms' pointed rays,",
      "When other things are parched beside",
      "And hot day leaves it in its pride."
    ],
    "linecount": "60"
  }
]