{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/bereavement",
 "title": "Bereavement",
 "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": 165,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A Countess (so they tell the tale)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who dwelt of old in Arno’s vale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where ladies, even of high degree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Know more of love than of A.B.C.,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came once with a prodigious bribe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the learned village scribe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That most discreet and honest man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who wrote for all the lover clan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor e’er a secret had betrayed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save when inadequately paid.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Write me,” she sobbed⁠—“I pray thee do⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A book about the Prince di Giu⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A book of poetry in praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all his works and all his ways;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The godlike grace of his address,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His more than woman’s tenderness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His courage stern and lack of guile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loves that wantoned in his smile.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So great he was, so rich and kind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll not within a fortnight find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His equal as a lover. O,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My God! I shall be drowned in woe!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What! Prince di Giu is dead?” exclaimed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The honest man for letters famed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The while he pocketed her gold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Of what?⁠—if I may be so bold.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fresh storms of tears the lady shed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I stabbed him fifty times,” she said.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}