{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-learner",
 "title": "A Learner",
 "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": 19,
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I do not think you rightly understand:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My foolish tongue imperfectly has caught",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trick of loving words, nor, as it ought,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Serves the sweet purpose of the heart’s command.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear, I’m untraveled in the golden land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of love, and in its language all untaught,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like some poor mariner by tempest brought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mongst alien races to a foreign strand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, pretty native, bear with me until",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My simple wants I rightly can avow⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My will to serve you with my men and ships.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For lo! already I’ve some little skill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the strange tongue. Ask me to kiss you now⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll read the riddle ere it leaves your lips!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}