{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/down-among-the-dead-men",
 "title": "Down Among the Dead Men",
 "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": 104,
 "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Within my dark and narrow bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I rested well, new-laid:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard above my fleshless head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grinding of a spade.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A gruffer note ensued and grew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To harsh and harsher strains:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The poet Bashford then I knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was “snatching” my remains.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O Welcker, let your hand be stayed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leave me here in peace.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of your revenge you should have made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An end with my decease.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Hush, Mouldyshanks, and hear my moan:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I once, as you’re aware,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was eminent in letters⁠—known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And honored everywhere.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My splendor made Mipitas bright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And San Francisco blind.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Men swore no writer e’er could write",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like me⁠—if I’d a mind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“With honors all insatiate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With curst ambition smit,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Too far, alas! I tempted fate⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I published what I’d writ!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Good Heaven! with what a hunger wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oblivion swallows fame!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Men who have known me from a child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forget my very name!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Even creditors with searching looks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My face cannot recall;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My heaviest one⁠—he prints my books⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgetful most of all.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O I should feel a sweet content",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If one poor dun his claim",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would bring to me for settlement,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bully me by name.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My dog is at my gate forlorn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It howls through all the night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I greet it in the morn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It answers with a bite!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O Poet, what in Satan’s name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me’s all this ado?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will snatching me restore the fame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That printing snatched from you?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Peace, dread Remains; I’m not about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To do a deed of sin.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I come not here to hale you out⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m trying to get in.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}