{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/for-a-revised-version",
 "title": "For a Revised Version",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-v",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 50,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1911,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V (1911)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume V of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1911). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface states that most of its verses are republished from newspapers and periodicals of the Pacific Coast, and which of them printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
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 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, deem it not presumption, Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In me to revise Thy holy Word⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No jot or tittle I’d efface,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No menace dire, nor pledge of grace.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No poetry I’d blot (although it’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well known to Thee that I hate poets),",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But humbly, reverently try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some missing mandates to supply.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For lo! I fall of dunces ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’ve got by heart Thy written will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I turn, behold! in tears away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From rogues Thy bidding who obey.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever “Thou shalt not” occurs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d add “Thou shalt the exact reverse,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a virtue, too, compel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(By plain command and threat of hell)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which has no corresponding vice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To interdict in terms precise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus I’d exterminate the brood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of rascals negatively good⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men Bible-clear, who ought to smart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the lash at tail of cart.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each soul (masks, too, would then be thinner)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If not a saint, should be a sinner.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In error, Lord, if I am found,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Observe how clouds my vision bound:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgive my narrowness of sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bless me with the larger light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Thine imperfect law to trace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The perfect purpose of Thy grace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}