{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/for-a-certain-critic",
 "title": "For a Certain Critic",
 "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": 23,
 "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": 45,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Let lowly theme engage my humble pen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stupidities of critics, not of men.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be it mine once more the maunderings to trace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the expounders’ self-directed race⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their wire-drawn fancies, finically fine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of diligent vacuity the sign.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let them in jargon of their trade rehearse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The moral meaning of the random verse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That runs spontaneous from the poet’s pen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be half-blotted by ambitious men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hope with his their meaner names to link",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By writing o’er it in another ink",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thoughts unreal which they think they think,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the mental eye in vain inspects",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hateful palimpsest to find the text.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The lark ascending heavenward, loud and long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sings to the dawning day his wanton song.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The moaning dove, attentive to the sound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its hidden meaning hastens to expound:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Explains its principles, design⁠—in brief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pronounces it a parable of grief!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bee, just pausing ere he daubs his thigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With pollen from a hollyhock near by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Declares he never heard in terms so just",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The labor problem thoughtfully discussed!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The browsing ass looks up and clears his whistle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To say: “A monologue upon the thistle!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meanwhile the lark, descending, folds his wing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And innocently asks: “What!⁠—did I sing?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O literary parasites! who thrive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the fame of better men, derive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your sustenance by suction, like a leech,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, for you preach of them, think masters preach⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who find it half is profit, half delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To write about what you could never write⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consider, pray, how sharp had been the throes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of famine and discomfiture in those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You write of if they had been critics, too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And doomed to write of nothing but of you!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lo! where the gaping crowd throngs yonder tent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the lion resolutely bent!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prosing showman who the beast displays",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grows rich and richer daily in its praise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But how if, to attract the curious yeoman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lion owned the show and showed the showman?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}