{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/azrael",
 "title": "Azrael",
 "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": 203,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "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": "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The moon in the field of the keel-plowed main",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was watching the growing tide;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A luminous peasant was driving his wain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he offered my soul a ride.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But I nourished a sorrow uncommonly tall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I fixed him fast with my eye.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“O, peasant,” I sang with a dying fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Go leave me to sing and die.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The water was weltering round my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As prone on the beach they lay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I chanted my death-song loud and sweet:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Kioodle, ioodle, iay!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then I heard the swish of erecting ears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which caught that enchanting strain.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The ocean was swollen with storms of tears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That fell from the shining swain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, poet,” leapt he to the soaken strand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“That ravishing song would make",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The devil a saint!” He held out his hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And solemnly added: “Shake.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We shook. “I crave a victim, you see,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He said⁠—“you came hither to die.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Angel of Death, ’twas he! ’twas he!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the victim he crove was I!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas I, Fred Emerson Brooks, the bard;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he knocked me on the head.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O Lord! I thought it uncommonly hard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I didn’t want to be dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You’ll sing no worser for that,” said he,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he drove with my soul away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O, death-song singers, be warned by me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kioodle, ioodle, iay!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}