{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-reply-to-a-letter",
 "title": "A Reply to a Letter",
 "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": 48,
 "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": 52,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O nonsense, parson⁠—tell me not they thrive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And jubilate who follow your dictation.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The good are the unhappiest lot alive⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know they are from careful observation.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If freedom from the terrors of damnation",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lengthens the visage like a telescope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lachrymosity’s a sign of hope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then I’ll continue, in my dreadful plight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To tread the dusky paths of sin, and grope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contentedly without your lantern’s light;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And though in many a bog beslubbered quite,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Refuse to flay me with ecclesiastic soap.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You say ’tis a sad world, seeing I’m condemned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With many a million others of my kidney.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each continent’s Hammed, Japheted and Shemmed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With sinners⁠—worldlings like Sir Philip Sidney",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And scoffers like Voltaire, who thought it bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To simulate respect for Genesis⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who bent the mental knee as if in prayer,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But mocked at Moses underneath his hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And like an angry gander bowed his head to hiss.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Seeing such as these, who die without contrition,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must go to⁠—beg your pardon, sir⁠—perdition,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sons of light, you tell me, can’t be gay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But count it sin of the sort called omission",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The groan to smother or the tear to stay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or fail to⁠—what is that they live by?⁠—pray.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So down they kneel, and the whole serious race is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Put by divine compassion on a praying basis.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, if you take it so to heart, while yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our own hearts are so light with nature’s leaven,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ll weep indeed when we in Hades sweat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you look down upon us out of Heaven.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In fancy, lo! I see your wailing shades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thronging the crystal battlements. Cascades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of tears spring singing from each golden spout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Run roaring from the verge with hoarser sound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dash downward through the glimmering profound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quench the tormenting flame and put the Devil out!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Presumptuous fool! to you no power belongs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pitchfork me to Heaven upon the prongs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a bad pen, whose disobedient sputter,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With less of ink than incoherence fraught,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Befits the folly that it tries to utter.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Brains, I observe, as well as tongues, can stutter:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You suffer from impediment of thought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save when considering your bread-and-butter.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When next you “point the way to Heaven,” take care:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your fingers all being thumbs, point Heaven knows where!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Farewell, poor dunce! your letter though I blame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bears witness how my anger I can tame:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve called you everything except your hateful name!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}