{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-rear-elevation",
 "title": "A Rear Elevation",
 "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": null,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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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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  [
   {
    "text": "Once Moses (in Scripture the story is told)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Entreated the favor God’s face to behold.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Compassion divine the petition denied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest vision be blasted and body be fried.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet this much, the Bible informs us, took place:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jehovah, concealing His terrible face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Protruded His rear from behind a great rock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And edification ensued without shock.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So godlike Salvini, lest worshipers die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Averting the blaze of his withering eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tempers his terrors and shows to the pack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of feeble adorers the broad of his back.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fires of their altars, which, paled and declined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before him, burn all the more brightly behind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O happy adorers, to care not at all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where fawning may tickle or lip-service fall!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}