{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-creditable-collision",
 "title": "A Creditable Collision",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-v",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 58,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1911,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V (1911)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume V of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1911). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface states that most of its verses are republished from newspapers and periodicals of the Pacific Coast, and which of them printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 4
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There was once a brave collision",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In Imaginary Bay,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "When a steamer with precision",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Clove its comfortable way",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Through another, which had hospitably stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To receive it, as a civil steamer should.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the people on the latter",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Said they didn’t understand,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "But they thought they’d better scatter",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the most adjacent land;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And the people on the former said: “That’s so⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will find it sixty fathoms down below.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the skipper of the vessel",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was sinking in the brine",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Said to t’other one: “I guess I’ll",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Trouble you to drop a line.”",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "“Well, just give me your address,” was the reply,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I am busy but I’ll write you by-and-by.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the carpenter whose function",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Was to mend the leaky boat",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Said: “So wide is our disjunction",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "That we cannot longer float.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "See the rats already leave us!” And so he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up and hove his kit among them in the sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though these incidents are cheerful",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "For a landsman to relate,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the passengers were fearful",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a melancholy fate;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "For their knowledge was imperfect of the way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the fishes have of breathing in the bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some of them, who were accounted",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Quite unmannerly and rude,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "On the floating steamer mounted,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Saying: “Hope we don’t intrude.”",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "But the others, with politeness rare and fine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said their tickets were not good upon that line.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But the skipper of the wetter",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Ship, the pilot and the mate⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing ever yet was better",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the way they met their fate;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "For the perils that beset them in their climb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They encountered with alacrity sublime.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the troubles all were ended",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And the living safe in port",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Invitation was extended",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "For them all to come to court.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the officers (they afterward explained)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were with deferential kindness entertained.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Twenty Consuls, ten Inspectors,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Thirty Coroners were there,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Eighty-seven skilled objectors",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And a Notary to swear;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And before that court the sailor-people sighed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And expounded how the passengers had lied.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The unanimous decision",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of that high and mighty court",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Was “spontaneous collision”⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "(I am quoting the report)",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And the skippers were commended who had fed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the lobsters each a bellyful of dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}