{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/again",
 "title": "Again",
 "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": 204,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, I’ve met her again⁠—at the Mission.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’d told me to see her no more;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It was not a command⁠—a petition;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d granted it once before.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, granted it, hoping she’d write me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Repenting her virtuous freak⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Subdued myself daily and nightly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the better part of a week.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then (’twas my duty to spare her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shame of recalling me) I",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just sought her again to prepare her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For an everlasting good-bye.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, that evening of bliss⁠—shall I ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cease living it over?⁠—although",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She said, when ’twas ended: “You’re never",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see me again. And now go.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As we parted with kisses ’twas human",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And natural for me to smile",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As I thought, “She’s in love, and a woman:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’ll send for me after a while.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she didn’t; and so⁠—well, the old Mission",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is fine, picturesque and gray;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis an excellent place for contrition⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sometimes she passes that way.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That’s how it occurred that I met her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that’s all there is to tell⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Except that I’d like to forget her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calm way of remarking: “I’m well.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was hardly worth while, all this keying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul to such tensions and stirs",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To learn that her food was agreeing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With that little stomach of hers.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}