{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-dampened-ardor",
 "title": "A Dampened Ardor",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
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  [
   {
    "text": "The Chinatown at Bakersfield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was blazing bright and high;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The flames to water would not yield,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though torrents drenched the sky",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And drowned the ground for miles around⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The houses were so dry.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then rose an aged preacher man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom all did much admire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who said: “To force on you my plan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I truly don’t aspire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But streams, it seems, might quench these beams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If turned upon the fire.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The fireman said: “This hoary wight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His folly dares to thrust",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On us! ’Twere well he felt our might⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, he shall feel our must!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With jet of wet and small regret",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They laid that old man’s dust.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}