{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/finis-aeternitatis",
 "title": "Finis Aeternitatis",
 "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": null,
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Strolling at sunset in my native land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fruits and flowers thick on either hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I crossed a Shadow flung athwart my way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Emerging on a waste of rock and sand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The apples all are gone from here,” I said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The roses perished and their spirits fled.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will go back.” A voice cried out: “The man",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is risen who eternally was dead!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I turned and saw an angel standing there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Newly descended from the heights of air.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet-eyed compassion filled his face, his hands",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A naked sword and golden trumpet bare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nay, ’twas not death, the shadow that I crossed,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I said. “Its chill was but a touch of frost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It made me gasp, but quickly I came through,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With breath recovered ere it scarce was lost.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas the same land! Remembered mountains thrust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grayed heads asky, and every dragging gust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In ashen valleys where my sons had reaped,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Stirred in familiar river-beds the dust.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some heights, where once the traveler was shown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The youngest and the proudest city known,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lifted smooth ridges in the steely light⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bleak, desolate acclivities of stone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where I had worshiped at my father’s tomb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within a massive temple’s awful gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A jackal slunk along the naked rock,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Affrighted by some prescience of doom.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Man’s vestiges were nowhere to be found,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save one brass mausoleum on a mound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(I knew it well) spared by the artist Time",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To emphasize the desolation round.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Into the stagnant sea the sullen sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sank behind bars of crimson, one by one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Eternity’s at hand!” I cried aloud.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Eternity,” the angel said, “is done.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For man is ages dead in every zone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The angels all are dead but I alone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The devils, too, are cold enough at last,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And God lies dead before the great white throne!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Tis foreordained that I bestride the shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all are gone (as Gabriel did before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I had throttled the last man alive)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And swear Eternity shall be no more.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O Azrael⁠—O Prince of Death, declare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why conquered I the grave?” I cried. “What rare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conspicuous virtues won this boon for me?”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“You’ve been revived,” he said, “to hear me swear.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then let me creep again beneath the grass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And knock you at yon pompous tomb of brass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If ears are what you want, Charles Crocker’s there⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Betwixt the greatest ears, the greatest ass.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He rapped, and while the hollow echoes rang,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out at the door a curst hyena sprang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fled! Said Azrael: “His soul’s escaped,”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And closed the brazen portal with a bang.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}