{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/fame",
 "title": "Fame",
 "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": 64,
 "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": {
  "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "One thousand years I slept beneath the sod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sleep in 1901 beginning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, by the action of some scurvy god",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who happened then to recollect my sinning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I was revived and given another inning.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On breaking from my grave I saw a crowd⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A formless multitude of men and women,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gathered about a ruin. Clamors loud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard, and curses deep enough to swim in;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, pointing at me, one said: “Let’s put him in!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then each turned on me with an evil look,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As in my ragged shroud I stood and shook.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nay, good Posterity,” I cried, “forbear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If that’s a jail I fain would be remaining",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Outside, for truly I should little care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To catch my death of cold. I’m just regaining",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The life lost long ago by my disdaining",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To take precautions against draughts like those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, haply, penetrate that cracked and splitting",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Old structure.” Then an aged wight arose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a chair of state in which he had been sitting,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And with preliminary coughing, spitting",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And wheezing, said: “ ’Tis not a jail, we’re sure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whate’er it may have been when it was newer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Twas found two centuries ago, o’ergrown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With brush and ivy, all undoored, ungated;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in restoring it we found a stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set here and there in the dilapidated",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And crumbling frieze, inscribed, in antiquated",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Big characters, with certain uncouth names,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which we conclude were borne of old by awful",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Rapscallions guilty of all sinful games⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vagrants engaged in purposes unlawful,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And orators less sensible than jawful.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So each ten years we add to the long row",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A name, the most unworthy that we know.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But why,” I asked, “put mine in?” He replied:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You look it”⁠—and the judgment pained me greatly;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Right gladly would I then and there have died,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that I’d risen from the grave so lately.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But on examining that solemn, stately",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Old ruin I remarked: “My friends, you err⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The truth of this is just what I expected.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This building in its time made quite a stir.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I lived (was famous, too) when ’twas erected.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The names here first inscribed were much respected.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the Hall of Fame, or I’m a stork,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this goat pasture once was called New York.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}