{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-welcome",
 "title": "A Welcome",
 "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": 139,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Because you call yourself Knights Templars, and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s neither Knight nor Temple in the land⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because you thus by vain pretense degrade",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To paltry purposes traditions grand⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because to cheat the ignorant you say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thing that’s not, elated still to sway",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crass credulity of gaping fools",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And women by fantastical display⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because no sacred fires did ever warm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your hearts, high knightly service to perform⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman’s breast or coffer of a man",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The only citadel you dare to storm⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because while railing still at lord and peer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At pomp and fuss-and-feathers while you jeer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each member of your order tries to graft",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A peacock’s tail upon his barren rear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because that all these things are thus and so,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I bid you welcome to our city. Lo!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’re free to come, and free to stay, and free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As soon as it shall please you, sirs⁠—to go.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}