{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-patter-song",
 "title": "A Patter Song",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 121,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "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": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 80,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There was a cranky Governor⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His name it wasn’t Waterman.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For office he was hotter than",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The love of any lover, nor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was Boruck’s threat of aiding him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Effective in dissuading him⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This pig-headed, big-headed, singularly self-conceited Governor Nonwaterman.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To citrus fairs, et cetera,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He went about philandering,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To pride of parish pandering,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He knew not any better⁠—ah,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His early education had",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not taught the abnegation fad⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wool-witted, bull-witted, fabulously feeble-minded king of gabble-gandering!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He conjured up, ad libitum,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With postures energetical,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One day (this is prophetical)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His graces, to exhibit ’em.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He straddled in each attitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Four parallels of latitude⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The slab-footed, crab-footed, galloping gregarian, of presence unaesthetical!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An ancient cow, perceiving that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His powers of agility",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Transcended her ability",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(A circumstance for grieving at)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon her horns engrafted him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to the welkin wafted him⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The high-rolling, sky-rolling, hurtling hallelujah lad of peerless volatility!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}