{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/an-idler",
 "title": "An Idler",
 "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": 119,
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "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",
  "corrections": [
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    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 9.1 character advances (~4.6 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 29,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 3
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Who told Creed Haymond he was witty?⁠—who",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had nothing better in this world to do?",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Could no greased pig’s appeal to his embrace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kindle his ardor for the friendly chase?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did no dead dog upon a vacant lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bloated and bald, or curdled in a clot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stir his compassion and inspire his arms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hide from human eyes its faded charms?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If not to works of piety inclined,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then recreation might have claimed his mind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The harmless game that shows the feline greed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cinch the shorts and make the market bleed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is better sport than victimizing Creed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a far livelier satisfaction comes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of knowing Simon, autocrat of thumbs.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If neither worthy work nor play command",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This gentleman of leisure’s heart and hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Mammon might his idle spirit lift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By hope of profit to some deed of thrift.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is there no cheese to pare, no flint to skin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No tin to mend, no glass to be put in,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No housewife worthy of a morning visit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her rags and sacks and bottles to solicit?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! the blind sow’s precarious pursuit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the aspiring oak’s familiar fruit!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twould more advantage any man to steal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This easy victim’s undefended meal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than tell Creed Haymond he has wit, and so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Expose the state to his narcotic flow!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}