{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-demagogue",
 "title": "A Demagogue",
 "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": 116,
 "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": {
  "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": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Yawp, yawp, yawp!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the moon and sun.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s aye the rabble,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I to gabble,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And hey! for the tale that is never done.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Chant, chant, chant!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To woo the reluctant vote.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I would I were dead",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And my say were said",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And my song were sung to its ultimate note.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Stab, stab, stab!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! the weapon between my teeth⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m sick of the flash of it;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "See how the slash of it",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Misses the foeman to mangle the sheath!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Boom, boom, boom!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m beating the mammoth drum.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My nethermost tripes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I blow into the pipes⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s O for the honors that never come!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas the dolorous blab",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a tramping “scab”⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas the eloquent Swift",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the marvelous gift⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The wild, weird, wonderful gift of gab!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}