{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-prophet-of-peace",
 "title": "A Prophet of Peace",
 "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": 13,
 "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": 35,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“The world is young, perverse, and bad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The virtues all are wanting;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The gods are dead and men are mad",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wickedness is haunting",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The human heart, an honored guest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As robbers of the night infest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wayside inn in Camilhad.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Hate walks the earth all unafraid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And neighbor murders neighbor;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Greed draws on Greed the battle-blade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Labor strangles Labor.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The widow and the orphan cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For bread while benefactors ply",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unlashed by law, their dreadful trade.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“King, president, and patriot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Serve their accurst ambition;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The soldier and the sans-culottes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The priest and politician,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are blowing with impested breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The coals of war that sparkle death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peace, righteousness, and love are not.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But I shall live to see the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose golden dawn is breaking!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The reign of war no more shall lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our dust, nor hearts be aching.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! all mankind in brotherhood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall study only to be good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fling the sword of self away!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So chanted one inspired and fain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His message to deliver",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To men who toiled upon the plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bled along the river,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the world was foul with crime!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This prophet lived about the time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Lamech’s wife bare Tubal-cain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}