{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/an-art-critic",
 "title": "An Art Critic",
 "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": 9,
 "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",
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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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 15,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
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  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ira P. Rankin, you’ve a nasal name⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll sound it through “the speaking-trump of fame,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wondering nations, hearing from afar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The brazen twang of its resounding jar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall say: “These bards are an uncommon class⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They blow their noses with a tube of brass!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So you object to Cytherea! Do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The picture was not painted, sir, for you!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your mind to gratify and taste address,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The masking dove had been a dove the less.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Provincial censor! all untaught in art,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With mind indecent and indecent heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do you not know⁠—nay, why should I explain?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Instruction, argument alike were vain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll show you reasons when you show me brain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}