{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/for-coercion-of-colombia",
 "title": "For Coercion of Colombia",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 49,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“The ships steam south",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the harbor mouth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In warlike, grim array!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They load the seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on every breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear the brass bands play",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As the squadrons steer away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“From each foreign shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are coming o’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The oceans big and small,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With cheering crews",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And churning screws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guns and shot and all.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Admirals that appal!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“In tropical seas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are thick as bees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, ne’er on the Trojan strand",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was gathered a fleet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So hard to beat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As sails to that southern land.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis terribly, terribly grand!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O sailorman stout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What’s it all about?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you happen to know tell me.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That the foe has no chance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His troops to advance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the field we all agree,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the devil a ship has he.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He shifted his quid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sailorman did,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the starboard side of his face.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His trousers he hitched",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he rolled and pitched,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Maintaining his dubious place",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a certain maritime grace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He looked at the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a studious eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this singular yarn he spun:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“When the wind’s sou’west",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every man’s possessed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a devil!⁠—no son-of-a-gun",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Can tell what’s fit to be done.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Perhaps it was naught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But a sailorman’s thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I said to myself: “I’m blest",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I can’t mark down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A man of renown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who is living in mental unrest",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the wind is forever sou’west.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}