{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/from-the-death-column",
 "title": "From the Death-Column",
 "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": 41,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 4
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Open wide, ye golden gates",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lead to the heavenly shore:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our father suffered in passing through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mother weighs still more.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Our papa dear has gone to heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make arrangements for eleven.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The winter’s snow",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Congealed his form.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "But now we know",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Our uncle’s warm.”",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“We can but mourn our loss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though wretched was his life.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Death took him from the cross⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Erected by his wife.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Weep not, mother: little Will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is gone to Upper Louisville.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}