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An Erroneous Assumption

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) · Shapes of Clay · The Scrap Heap · 1903

Good for he’s old? Ah, Youth, you do not dream
How sweet the roses in the autumn seem!

Where this text comes from

First published in Shapes of Clay (1903). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry, the-scrap-heap.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (11)

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

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L2.

Cite this poem

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?). “An Erroneous Assumption.” First published in Shapes of Clay (1903). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/ambrose-bierce/an-erroneous-assumption/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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