{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/california",
 "title": "California",
 "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": 100,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Why should he not have been allowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thread with peaceful feet the crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That filled that Christian street?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Decalogue he had observed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Faith in Jesus had not swerved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And scorning pious platitudes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw in the Beatitudes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lamp to guide his feet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He knew that Jonah downed the whale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made no bones of it. The tale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Ananias told",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He swore was true. He had no doubt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Daniel laid the lions out.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In short, he had all holiness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All meekness and all lowliness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was with saints enrolled.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis true, some slight excess of zeal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little to promote the weal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this most Christian state",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had moved him rudely to divide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The queue that was a pagan’s pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in addition certify",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Faith by making fur to fly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From pelt as well as pate.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, Heavenly Father, thou dost know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That in this town these actions go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For nothing worth a name.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, every editorial ass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To prove they never come to pass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will damn his soul eternally,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although in his own journal he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May read the printed shame.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From bloody hands the reins of pow’r",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fall slack; the high-decisive hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strikes not for liars’ ears.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Remove, O Father, the disgrace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stains our California’s face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And consecrate to human good",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strength of her young womanhood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all her golden years!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}