{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-career-in-letters",
 "title": "A Career in Letters",
 "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": 89,
 "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": {
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  "n_stanzas": 4,
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  "longest_line_chars": 45,
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  [
   {
    "text": "When Liberverm resigned the chair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of This or That in college, where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For two decades he had gorged his brain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With more than it could well contain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In order to relieve the stress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He took to writing for the press.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Pondronummus said, “I’ll help",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This mine of talent to devel’p:”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And straightway bought with coin and credit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Thundergust for him to edit.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The great man seized the pen and ink",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wrote so hard he couldn’t think;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ideas grew beneath his fist",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flew like falcons from his wrist.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His pen shot sparks all kinds of ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till all the rivers were ablaze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And where the coruscations fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men uttered words I dare not spell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eftsoons with corrugated brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wet towels bound about his pow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Locked legs and failing appetite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought so hard he couldn’t write.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His soaring fancies, chickenwise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came home to roost and wouldn’t rise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dimmer light and milder heat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His goose-quill staggered o’er the sheet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then dragged, then stopped; the finish came⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He couldn’t even write his name.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Thundergust in three short weeks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had risen, roared, and split its cheeks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Pondronummus, “How unjust!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The storm I raised has laid my dust!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When, Moneybagger, you have aught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invested in a vein of thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be sure you’ve purchased not, instead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That salted claim, a bookworm’s head.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}