{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-scion-of-nobility",
 "title": "A “Scion of Nobility”",
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, sisters, weep!⁠—our Baron dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! has run away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If always we had kept him here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He had not gone astray.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Painter and grainer it were vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To say he was, before;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And if he were, yet ne’er again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’ll darken here a door.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We mourn each matrimonial plan⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even tradesmen join the cry:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He was so promising a man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whenever he did buy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He was a fascinating lad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deny it all who may;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Even “moneyed” men confess he had",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A very taking way.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So from our tables he is gone⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our tears descend in showers;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We loved the very fat upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His kidneys, for ’twas ours.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To women he was all respect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To duns as cold as ice;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No lady could his suit reject,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No tailor get its price.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He raised our hope above the sky;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! alack! and O!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That one who worked it up so high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should play it down so slow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}