{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/another-way",
 "title": "Another Way",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 74,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.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": 12,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I lay in silence, dead. A woman came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And laid a rose upon my breast and said:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“May God be merciful.” She spoke my name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And added: “It is strange to think him dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He loved me well enough, but ’twas his way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To speak it lightly.” Then, beneath her breath:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Besides”⁠—I knew what further she would say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But then a footfall broke my dream of death.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To-day the words are mine. I lay the rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon her breast, and speak her name, and deem",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It strange indeed that she is dead. God knows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had more pleasure in the other dream.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}