{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-rational-anthem",
 "title": "A Rational Anthem",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-v",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 27,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1911,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V (1911)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume V of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1911). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface states that most of its verses are republished from newspapers and periodicals of the Pacific Coast, and which of them printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "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": 21,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 30,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My country, ’tis of thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet land of felony,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thee I sing⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Land where my fathers fried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young witches and applied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whips to the Quaker’s hide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made him spring.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My knavish country, thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Land where the thief is free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy laws I love;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I love thy thieving bills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That tap the people’s tills;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I love thy mob whose will’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All laws above.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let Federal employees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rings rob all they please,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The whole year long.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Let office-holders make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their piles and judges rake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our coin. For Jesus’ sake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let’s all go wrong!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}