{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/fate",
 "title": "Fate",
 "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": 70,
 "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": 15,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas, alas, for the tourist’s guide!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He turned from the beaten trail aside,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wandered bewildered, lay down and died.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O grim is the Irony of Fate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It switches the man of low estate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loosens the dogs upon the great.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It lights the fireman to roast the cook;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fisherman writhes upon the hook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the flirt is slain with a tender look.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The undertaker it overtakes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It saddles the cavalier, and makes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The haughtiest butcher into steaks.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Assist me, gods, to balk the decree!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing I’ll do and nothing I’ll be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In order that nothing be done to me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}