{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/an-absurdum",
 "title": "An Absurdum",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Congressman Rixey, you’re a statesman⁠—you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yourself will hardly say that you are not;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet I know not what you hope to do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For those Confederates whose luckless lot",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is to have lived through storms of Yankee shot",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To this our day. They draw their breath, indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But from the Government no cent of what",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So admirably serves your nobler need.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You work for it? Why, that all cavilers concede.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You’d call these “rebels” to the Soldiers’ Homes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On equal terms with persons whom they fought!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whereat the “truly loyal” statesman foams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the loud mouth of him. But that is naught⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He foams, not for he must, but for he ought:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the Poll-patriot’s emotions flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By taking (with much else of value) thought.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His feelings, if he have them, never blow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His cooling coal of anger to a brighter glow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, well, sir, even the Devil may be right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through ignorance or accident. ’Tis said",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We’re sometimes dazzled with too great a light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In which the blind, with customary tread",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(And by a small, unblinking puppy led)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Walk prosperous courses to appointed goals.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so your critics, though without a head",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Among them⁠—eyeless, therefore, as the moles⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May wiser be than you, who damn their little souls!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If of two aged Southern gentlemen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of equal need and worth, the one that tried",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To cook the country’s goose⁠—or say its hen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be blest with all the cheer we can provide,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And which to t’other sternly is denied",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Because he didn’t, it will seem right queer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gods are logical and may deride.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Respect the Southern veteran, but fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The laughter of Olympus sounding loud and clear!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}