{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-woman-in-politics",
 "title": "A Woman in Politics",
 "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": null,
 "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": {
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  "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": 35,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "What, madam, run for School Director? You?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And want my vote and influence? Well, well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That beats me! Gad! what are we coming to?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all my life I never have heard tell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of such sublime presumption, and I smell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A nigger in the fence! Excuse me, madam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We statesmen sometimes speak like the old Adam.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But now you mention it⁠—well, well, who knows?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We might, that’s certain, give the sex a show.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I have a cousin⁠—teacher. I suppose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I stand in and you’re elected⁠—no?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ll make no bargains? That’s a pretty go!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But understand that school administration",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Belongs to politics, not education.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We’ll pass the teacher deal; but it were wise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To understand each other at the start.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You know my business⁠—books and school supplies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’d hardly, if elected, have the heart",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some small advantage to deny me⁠—part",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all my profits to be yours. What? “Stealing”?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Please don’t express yourself with so much feeling.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You pain me, truly. Now one question more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suppose a fair young man should ask a place",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As teacher⁠—would you (pardon) shut the door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Department in his handsome face",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Until⁠—I know not how to put the case⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would you extort a kiss to pay your favor?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good Lord! you laugh? I thought the matter graver.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, well, we can’t do business, I suspect:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman has no head for politics.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My profitable offers you reject",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And will not promise anything to fix",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Things right that civic saints and angels mix.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Good morning. Stay⁠—I’m chaffing you, conceitedly.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Madam, I mean to vote for you⁠—repeatedly.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}