{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/emancipation",
 "title": "Emancipation",
 "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": 24,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.0 character advances (~3.5 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold! the days of miracle at last",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Return⁠—if ever they were truly past:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From sinful creditors’ unholy greed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The church called Calvary at last is freed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So called for there the Savior’s crucified,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roberts and Carmany on either side.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The circling contribution-box no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Provokes the nod and simulated snore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more the Lottery, no more the Fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lures the reluctant dollar from its lair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor Ladies’ Lunches at a bit a bite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Destroy the health yet spare the appetite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While thrifty sisters o’er the cauldron stoop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To serve their God with zeal, their friends with soup,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the brethren mendicate the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With viewless placards: “We’ve been so from birth!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sure of his wage, the pastor now can lend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His whole attention to his latter end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remarking with a martyr’s prescient thrill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Hemp maturing on the cheerless Hill.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The holy brethren, lifting pious palms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pour out their gratitude in prayer and psalms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chant De Profundis, meaning “out of debt,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dance like mad⁠—or would if they were let.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Deeply disguised (a deacon newly dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Supplied the means) Jack Satan holds his head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As high as any and as loudly sings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His jubilate till each rafter rings.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rejoice, ye ever faithful,” bellows he,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The debt is lifted and the temple free!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then says, aside, with gentle cachinnation:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I have a mortgage on the congregation.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}