{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/constancy",
 "title": "Constancy",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 32,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I had a dream. A throng of people sped",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hard after something that before them fled⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A ball that leapt and bounded. I pursued,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Kicking, like all the rest, at Bryan’s head.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, God, it was indeed a ghastly play!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That noble head⁠—its locks in disarray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Streaming like feathers of a shuttlecock⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Urged with resounding buffets on its way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ever the foremost in the chase accurst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran Two who in his life, too, had been first",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among his followers. “Behold,” I cried,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Those twins of constancy, the Devil and Hearst!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Smitten in spirit with a sudden shame.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from intemperate exertion lame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sprang, and skyward with a parting kick",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Hoisted that mellow bulb, and left the game.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}