{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-vision-of-climate",
 "title": "A Vision of Climate",
 "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": 72,
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": 55,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I dreamed that I was poor and ill and sad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broken in hope and weary of my life;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My ventures all miscarrying⁠—naught had",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all my labor in the heat and strife.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in my heart some certain thoughts were rife",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an unsummoned exit. As I lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Considering my bitter state, I cried:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Alas! that hither I did ever stray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better in some fair country to have died",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than live in such a land, where Fortune never",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Unless one be successful) crowns Endeavor.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, even as I lamented, lo! there came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A troop of Presences⁠—I knew not whence",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor what they were: thought cannot rightly name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What’s known through spiritual evidence,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Reported not by gross material sense.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Why come ye here?” I seemed to cry (though naught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sleeping tongue did utter) to the first⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“What are ye?⁠—with what woeful message fraught?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye have a ghastly look, as ye had burst",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some sepulcher in memory. Weird creatures,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m sure I’d know you if ye had but features.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some subtle organ noted the reply",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Inaudible to ear of flesh the tone):",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“The Finest Climate in the World am I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Siskiyou to San Diego known⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the Sierra to the sea. The zone",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Called semi-tropical I’ve pulled about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And placed it where it does most good, I trust.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I shake my never-failing bounty out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alike upon the just and the unjust.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“That’s very true,” said I, “but when ’tis shaken",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My share by the unjust is ever taken.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Permit me,” it resumed, “now to present",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My eldest son, the Champagne Atmosphere,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And others to rebuke your discontent⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Mammoth Squash, Strawberry All the Year,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fair No Lightning⁠—flashing only here⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Wholesome Earthquake and Italian Sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With its Unstriking Sun; and last, not least,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Compos Mentis Dog. Now, ingrate, try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bring a better stomach to the feast:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When Nature makes a dance and pays the piper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be unhappy is to be a viper!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why, yet,” said I, “with all your blessings fine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(And Heaven forbid that I should speak them ill)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m poor and ill and sorrowful. Ye shine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With more of splendor than of heat: for still,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Although my will is warm, my bones are chill.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Then warm you with enthusiasm’s blaze⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fortune waits not on toil,” they cried; “O then,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Join the wild chorus clamoring our praise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throw up your beaver and throw down your pen!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Begone!” I shouted. They bewent, a-smirking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, awakening, fell straight a-working.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}