{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-demand",
 "title": "A Demand",
 "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": 17,
 "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": 54,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "You promised to paint me a picture,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear Mat,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I was to pay you in rhyme.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Although I am loth to inflict your",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Most easy of consciences, I’m",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of opinion that fibbing is awful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And breaking a contract unlawful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indictable, too, as a crime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A slight and all that.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If, Lady Unbountiful, any",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of that",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By mortals called pity has part",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In your obdurate soul⁠—if a penny",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You care for the health of my heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By performing your undertaking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ll succor that organ from breaking⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spare it for some new smart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As puss does a rat.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you think it is very becoming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear Mat,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To deny me my rights evermore?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And⁠—bless you! if I begin summing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your sins they will make a long score!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You never were generous, madam:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you had been Eve and I Adam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’d have given me naught but the core,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And little of that.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Had I been content with a Titian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cat",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By Landseer, a meadow by Claude,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No doubt I’d have had your permission",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To take it⁠—by purchase abroad.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But why should I sail o’er the ocean",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Landseers and Claudes? I’ve a notion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All’s bad that the critics belaud.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I wanted a Mat.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Presumption’s a sin, and I suffer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But still you did say that sometime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I’d pay you enough (here’s enougher⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s more than enough) of rhyme",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’d paint me a picture. I pay you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hereby in advance; and I pray you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Condone, while you can, your crime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And send me a Mat.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if you don’t do so I warn you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear Mat,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll raise such a clamor and cry",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On Parnassus the Muses will scorn you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As mocker of poets and fly",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With bitter complaints to Apollo:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Her spirit is proud, her heart hollow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her beauty”⁠—they’ll hardly deny,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On second thought, that!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}