{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/basilica",
 "title": "Basilica",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Uncollected Verse",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "The Californian (San Francisco), vol. VII no. 18, 21 September 1867",
  "note": "Printed over the standing line “[For the Californian.]”, which is how that paper marked matter written for it, and signed with the author's initials and surname. Read from the bound volume VII scanned as archive.org/details/cali07webb; no earlier printing has been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "uncollected-verse.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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.7 character advances (~3.9 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/cali07webb",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 66,
  "n_stanzas": 22,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "With aimless feet, along the verge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ocean, where the rocks emerge,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "I strolled, and watched the baffled surge.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In sheltered channels at my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sleepy ripples crisping neat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slid in and out with sluicy beat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The groaning sea, wind-smitten white⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The day, shot through with throbbing light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay palpitating on my sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From bloody death of stricken day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ocean’s leprous agony,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My weary eyes I drew away,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To where the rocks the margin mar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of waters where the shadows are⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saw the smiling of a star.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Imbedded deep in mossy green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A glinting gem with lustrous sheen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burnt wondrous with a flame serene,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My soul grew drunken with its ray⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like liquid April filing May,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its wing-light suffused the day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And day became⁠—with colors cold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New-drowned in beauties manifold⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An opal chalice brimming gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A silent music clove the air⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A spirit bent in worship there⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wish had wrought itself a prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, if thy beauty, radiant stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be not rejected love alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By wooing skies upon thee thrown;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But rather a desire intense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Appealing thus to human sense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With more than human eloquence;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If so thou strivest to impart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The aspirations at thy heart⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pulsing a wish with every spark;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Give me to claim thy sacred ray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll bear thee from thy shades away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And set thee in the perfect day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’ll niche thee in a shrine made fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wondrous woods and metals rare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dim with amber-tinted air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And sculpted work of quaint device,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gem-tinct with gleams of prismic ice⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lamps antique of fabled price⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And droning troops of monkish bees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With censers filled at spicy trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall minister on bended knees.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Grey darkness fell upon the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With hasty clutch my eager hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To snatch the gem from barren strand",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Essayed. When, Lo! with stiffened hair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And vision smit with baleful glare⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hope sharp-freezing to despair,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With heart compressed as in a vice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And forehead bound with sudden ice⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I grasped a hidden Cockatrice.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, with Heart of Stone with eyes of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ivory throat of pallid white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And snaky folds concealed from sight⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With jeweled teeth, alas! and breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose touch to passion ministreth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet-spiced with aromatic death!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No pen of poison, gall-immersed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of deadly sins can name thy worst;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or fitly curse thy race accursed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}