{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-finger-on-the-lips",
 "title": "A Finger on the Lips",
 "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": 6,
 "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": 12,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Mike, have ye heard the good news?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’re gwan to have Home Rule at last;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ a Parlyment fine they will chuse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ wurruk’s a thing o’ the past.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They’ll vote every man an estate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wid all he can drink and ate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indade it’s the blessedest day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve seen since we landed here",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In America. Whisht! though⁠—I say⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bedad, it’s no place to cheer!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For Home Rule we mustn’t hurroo⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’ll be wantin’ it here if we do.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}