{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-future-conversation",
 "title": "A Future Conversation",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 23,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 39,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 9,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 32.8 character advances (~16.4 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 39,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“What is this I see, what is this I see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this year of our Lord 3003?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What ruins are spread in confusion wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over hill and plain by Potomac’s side?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“These, traveler, these are the leveled stones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attesting the prowess of Mother Jones.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O plowman, I never in history grew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the high attainments of Smith Carew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose noble book, ‘The Decline and Fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of America,’ holds the respect of all.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Mother Jones I often have heard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thought⁠—pray pardon if I have erred⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the ancient lady became renowned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By embroidering cats on a velvet ground.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Your error is wide, remote, extreme:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not the needle’s shine, but the sabre’s gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Delighted of old her heroic soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made her unloved of the Lords of Coal.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that distant day when the miner ‘rose,’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to spite his countenance severed his nose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And owners permitted each mine of the trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fill up with water to lay his dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She marshaled the women, with sabre and gun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And marched with banners on Washington.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I see, I see in these ruins gray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through which you are urging your plowshare gay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The work of their hands, slender and white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That plied the pick and the crowbar bright.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The cannon, my friend⁠—but no harm was done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For before the city was overrun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the warrior-dames of that rebel rout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The politicians had cleaned it out,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the stones that about the plain they spread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were served to the poor when they asked for bread.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O affable plowman, I’d fain admire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your tale, but, alas, I’m myself a liar!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Besides, I’ve a better one, which, mayhap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’d like to be hearing.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Giddap, giddap!”",
    "indent": 9
   }
  ]
 ]
}