{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-poets-hope",
 "title": "A Poet’s Hope",
 "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": 116,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 66,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas a weary-looking mortal, and he wandered near the portal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the melancholy City of the Discontented Dead.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He was pale and worn exceeding and his manner was unheeding,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if it could not matter what he did nor what he said.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Sacred stranger”⁠—I addressed him with a reverence befitting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The austere, unintermitting, dread solemnity he wore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis the custom, too, prevailing in that vicinage when hailing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One who possibly may be a person lately “gone before”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Sacred stranger, much I ponder on your evident dejection,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But my carefulest reflection leaves the riddle still unread.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How do you yourself explain your dismal tendency to wander",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the melancholy City of the Discontented Dead?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then that solemn person, pausing in the march that he was making,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roused himself as if awaking, fixed his dull and stony eye",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On my countenance and, slowly, like a priest devout and holy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chanted in a mournful monotone the following reply:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O my brother, do not fear it; I’m no disembodied spirit⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am Lampton, the Slang Poet, with a price upon my head.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I am watching by this portal for some late lamented mortal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To arise in his disquietude and leave his earthy bed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then I hope to take possession and pull in the earth above me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, renouncing my profession, ne’er be heard of any more.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For there’s not a soul to love me and no living thing respects me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which so painfully affects me that I fain would ‘go before.’ ”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then I felt a deep compassion for the gentleman’s dejection,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For privation of affection would refrigerate a frog.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So I said: “If nothing human, and if neither man nor woman",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can appreciate the fashion of your merit buy a dog.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}