{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/an-actor",
 "title": "An Actor",
 "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": 16,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "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",
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   {
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 48,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Someone (’tis hardly new) has oddly said",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The color of a trumpet’s blare is red;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And Joseph Emmett thinks the crimson shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On woman’s cheek a trumpet-note of fame.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The more the red storm rises round her nose⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The more her eyes averted seek her toes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He fancies all the louder he can hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tube resounding in his spacious ear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, all his varied talents to exert,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deepens his dullness to display his dirt.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the gallery’s indecent crowd,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gentlemen below, with hisses loud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In hot contention (these his art to crown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those his naked nastiness to drown)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make such a din that cheeks erewhile aflame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grow white and in their fear forget their shame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With impudence imperial, sublime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unmoved, the patient actor bides his time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till storm and counter-storm are both allayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like donkeys, each by t’other one outbrayed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all the place is silent as a mouse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One slow, suggestive gesture clears the house!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}