{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-retort",
 "title": "A Retort",
 "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": 37,
 "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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   "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": {
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  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "As vicious women think all men are knaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shrew-bound gentlemen discourse of slaves;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As reeling drunkards judge the world unsteady,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And idlers swear employers ne’er get ready⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thieves that the constable stole all they had,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mad that all except themselves are mad;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, in another’s clear escutcheon shown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Barnes rails at stains reflected from his own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prates of “docility,” nor feels the dark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ring round his neck⁠—the Ralston collar mark.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back, man, to studies interrupted once,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere yet the rogue had merged into the dunce⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back, back to Yale! and, grown with years discreet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The course a virgin’s lust cut short, complete.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go drink again at the Pierian pool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And learn at least better to play the fool.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No longer scorn the draught, although the font",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unlike Pactolus, waters not Belmont.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}