{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-holiday",
 "title": "A Holiday",
 "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": 38,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis Master Barry, editor;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He takes an holiday.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now wherefore, venerable sir,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So resolutely gay?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He lifts his head, he laughs aloud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Odzounds! ’tis drear to see!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Because the Boodle-Scribbler crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will soon be far from me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Full many a year I’ve striven well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To freeze the caitiffs out",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By making this good town a Hell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But still they hang about.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“They maken mouths and eke they grin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the dollar limit game;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And they are holpen in that sin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By many a wicked dame.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“In sylvan bowers hence I’ll dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My bruised mind to ease.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Farewell, ye urban scenes, farewell!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hail, unfamiliar trees!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Forth then did Master Barry hie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the country folk",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Besought him that he come not nigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deadly poison oak!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He smiled a cheerful smile (the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was straightway overcast)⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The poison oak along his way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was blighted as he passed!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}