{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-bubble",
 "title": "A Bubble",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 152,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4793",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Mrs. Mehitable Marcia Moore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was a dame of superior mind,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a gown which, modestly fitting before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was greatly puffed up behind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bustle she wore was ingeniously planned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With an inspiration bright:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It magnified seven diameters and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was remarkably nice and light.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was made of rubber and edged with lace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And riveted all with brass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the whole immense interior space",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inflated with hydrogen gas.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The ladies all said when she hove in view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the round and rising moon:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“She’s a stuck up thing!” which was partly true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And men called her the Captive Balloon.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To Manhattan Beach for a bath one day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She went and she said: “O dear!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I leave off this what will people say?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall look so uncommonly queer!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So a costume she had accordingly made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To take it all nicely in,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when she appeared in that suit arrayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was greeted with many a grin.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Proudly and happily looking around,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She waded out into the wet;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the water was very, very profound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her feet and her forehead met!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As her bubble drifted away from the shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the glassy billows borne,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All cried: “Why, where is Mehitable Moore?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw her go in, I’ll be sworn!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the bulb it swelled as the sun grew hot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till it burst with a sullen roar,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sea like oil closed over the spot⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Farewell, O Mehitable Moore!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}