{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-mute-inglorious-milton",
 "title": "A “Mute Inglorious Milton”",
 "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": 55,
 "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": 19,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, I’m the Unaverage Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But you never have heard of me,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For my brother, the Average Man, outran",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My fame with rapiditee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I’m sunk in Oblivion’s sea;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But my bully big brother the world can span",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With his wide notorietee.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I do everything that I can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make ’em attend to me,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the papers ignore the Unaverage Man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a weird uniformitee.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So sang with a dolorous note",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A voice that I heard from the beach;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On the sable waters it seemed to float",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a mortal part of speech.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea was Oblivion’s sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I cried as I plunged to swim:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“The Unaverage Man shall reside with me.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he didn’t⁠—I stayed with him!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}