{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/an-obituarian",
 "title": "An Obituarian",
 "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": 2,
 "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": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A newspaper Death-poet sat at his desk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrapped in appropriate gloom;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His posture was pensive and picturesque,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a raven charming a tomb.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Enter a party a-drinking the cup",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sorrow⁠—and likewise of woe:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Some harrowing poetry, Mister, whack up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All wrote in the key of O.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For the angels have called my old woman hence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the strife⁠—where she fit mighty free.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s a nickel a line? Cond⁠⸺⁠n the expense!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wealth is now little to me.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Bard of Mortality looked him through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the piercingest sort of a way:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“It is much to me though it’s little to you⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve taken a wife to-day.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So he twisted the tail of his mental cow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made her give down her flow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The grief of that bard was long-winded, somehow⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was reams and reamses of woe.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The widower man which had buried his wife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grew lily-like round each gill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For she turned in her grave and came back to life!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then he cruel ignored the bill.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Sorrow she opened her gates a-wide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As likewise did also Woe,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the death-poet’s song, as is heard inside,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is sang in the key of O.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}