{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/from-top-to-bottom",
 "title": "From Top to Bottom",
 "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": 118,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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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": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
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  "longest_line_chars": 39,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Buddha, had you but foreknown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vices of your priesthood",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It would have made you twist and moan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As any wounded beast would.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You would have damned the entire lot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turned a Christian, would you not?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There were no Christians, I’ll allow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In your day; that would only",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have brought distinction. Even now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Christian might feel lonely.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All take the name, but facts are things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As stubborn as the will of kings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The priests were ignorant and low",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When ridiculed by Lucian;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The records, could we read, might show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The same of times Confucian.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet the fact I can’t disguise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Deacon Rankin’s good and wise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis true he is not quite a priest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor more than half a preacher;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But he exhorts as loud at least",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As any living creature.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the plate is passed about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He never takes a penny out.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From Buddha down to Rankin! There⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I never did intend to.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This pen’s a buzzard’s quill, I swear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such subjects to descend to.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When from the humming-bird I’ve wrung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A plume I’ll write of Mike de Young.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}