{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-spade",
 "title": "A Spade",
 "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": 112,
 "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/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": {
  "n_lines": 23,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 56,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Precursor of our woes, historic spade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What dismal records burn upon thy blade!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "On thee I see the maculating stains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of passengers’ commingled blood and brains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this red rust a widow’s curse appears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And here an orphan tarnished thee with tears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon thy handle sanguinary bands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reveal the clutching of thine owner’s hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When first he wielded thee with vigor brave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cut a sod and dig a people’s grave⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For they who are debauched are dead and ought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In God’s name, to be hid from sight and thought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within thee, as within a magic glass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I seem to see a foul procession pass⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Judges with ermine dragging in the mud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spotted here and there with guiltless blood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gold-greedy legislators jingling bribes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kept editors and sycophantic scribes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Liars in swarms and plunderers in tribes!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They fade away before the night’s advance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fancy figures thee a devil’s lance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gleaming portentous through the misty shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While ghosts of murdered virtues shriek about thy blade!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}