{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/in-defense",
 "title": "In Defense",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 55,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "You may say, if you please, Johnny Bull, that our girls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are crazy to marry your dukes and your earls;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I’ve heard that the maids of your own little isle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greet bachelor lords with a favoring smile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, titles, ’tis said in defense of our fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are popular here because popular there;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for them our ladies persistently go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because ’tis exceedingly English, you know.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whatever the motive, you’ll have to confess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The effort’s attended with easy success;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And⁠—pardon the freedom⁠—’tis thought, over here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis mortification you mask with a sneer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It’s all very well, sir, your scorn to parade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the high nasal twang of the Yankee maid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, ah, to my lord when he dares to propose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No sound is so sweet as that “Yes” from the nose.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, well, if the dukes and the earls and that lot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can stand it (God succor them if they can not!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your commoners ought to assent, I am sure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what they’re not called on to suffer, endure.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Tis nothing but money?⁠—Your nobles are bought?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to that, I submit, it is commonly thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That England’s a country not specially free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Croesi and (if you’ll allow it) Croesae.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You’ve many a widow and many a girl",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With money to purchase a duke or an earl.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis a very remarkable thing, you’ll agree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When goods import buyers from over the sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas for the woman of Albion’s isle!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She may simper; as well as she can she may smile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She may wear pantalettes and an air of repose⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But my lord of the future will talk through his nose.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}