{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-study-in-gray",
 "title": "A Study in Gray",
 "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": 121,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I step from the door with a shiver",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(This fog is uncommonly cold)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And ask myself: What did I give her?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The maiden a trifle gone-old,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the head of gray hair that was gold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, well, I suppose ’twas a dollar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And doubtless the change is correct,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though it’s odd that it seems so much smaller",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than what I’d a right to expect.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But you pay when you dine, I reflect.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So I walk up the street⁠—’twas a saunter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A score of years back, when I strolled",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From this door; and our talk was all banter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those days when her hair was of gold,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sea-fog less searching and cold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A score? Why, that isn’t so very",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Much time to have lost from a life.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s reason enough to be merry:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve not fallen down in the strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But marched with the drum and the fife.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If Hope, when she lured me and beckoned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had pushed at my shoulders instead,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Fame, on whose favors I reckoned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had laureled the worthiest head,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I could hallow the years that are dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Believe me, I’ve held my own, mostly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through all of this wild masquerade;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But somehow the fog is more ghostly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To-night, and the skies are more grayed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the locks of the restaurant maid.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If ever I’d fainted and faltered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d fancy this did but appear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the climate, I’m certain, has altered⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grown colder and more austere",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than it was in that earlier year.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The lights, too, are strangely unsteady,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lead from the street to the quay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I think they’ll go out⁠—and I’m ready",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To follow. Out there in the sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fog-bell is calling to me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}