{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/contentment",
 "title": "Contentment",
 "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": 96,
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Sleep fell upon my senses and I dreamed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long years had circled since my life had fled.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The world was different, and all things seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remote and strange, like noises to the dead.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And one great Voice there was; and someone said:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Posterity is speaking⁠—rightly deemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Infallible:” and so I gave attention,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hoping Posterity my name would mention.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Illustrious Spirit,” said the Voice, “appear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While we confirm eternally thy fame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before our dread tribunal answer, here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why do no statues celebrate thy name,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No monuments thy services proclaim?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why did not thy contemporaries rear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee some schoolhouse or memorial college?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It looks almighty queer, you must acknowledge.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up spake I hotly: “That is where you err!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But someone thundered in my ear: “You shan’t",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Be interrupting these proceedings, sir;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The question was addressed to General Grant.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some other things were spoken which I can’t",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Distinctly now recall, but I infer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By certain flushings of my cheeks and forehead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Posterity’s environment is torrid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then heard I (this was in a dream, remark)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Another Voice, clear, comfortable, strong,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As Grant’s great shade, replying from the dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said in a tone that rang the earth along,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And thrilled the senses of the judges’ throng:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’d rather you would question why, in park",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And street, my monuments were not erected",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than why they were.” Then, waking, I reflected.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}