{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-promised-fast-train",
 "title": "A Promised Fast Train",
 "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": 97,
 "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": [
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   "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",
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
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 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
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  "longest_line_chars": 49,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I turned my eyes upon the Future’s scroll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saw its pictured prophecies unroll.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I saw that magical life-laden train",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flash its long glories o’er Nebraska’s plain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I saw it smoothly up the mountain glide.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O happy, happy passengers!” I cried.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For Pleasure, singing, drowned the engine’s roar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Hope on joyous pinions flew before.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then dived the train adown the sunset slope⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleasure was silent and unseen was Hope.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Crashes and shrieks attested the decay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That greed had wrought upon that iron way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The rusted rails broke down the rotting ties,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clouds of flying spikes obscured the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My coward eyes I drew away, distressed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fixed them on the terminus to-West,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where soon, its melancholy tale to tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One bloody car-wheel wabbled in and fell!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}