{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/hell",
 "title": "Hell",
 "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": 26,
 "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,
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   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
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   "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)"
 },
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  [
   {
    "text": "The friends who stood about my bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looked down upon my face and said:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "“God’s will be done⁠—the fellow’s dead.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When from my body I was free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I straightway felt myself, ah me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sink downward to the life to be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Full twenty centuries I fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then alighted. “Here you dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For aye,” a Voice cried⁠—“this is Hell!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A landscape lay about my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where trees were green and flowers sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The climate was devoid of heat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sun looked down with gentle beam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the bosom of the stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor saw I any sign of steam.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The waters by the sky were tinged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hills with light and color fringed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Birds warbled on the wing unsinged.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ah, no, this is not Hell,” I cried;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The preachers ne’er so greatly lied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is Earth’s spirit glorified!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Good souls do not in Hades dwell,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, look, there’s John P. Irish!” “Well,”",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The Voice said, “that’s what makes it Hell.”",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}