{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/in-high-life",
 "title": "In High Life",
 "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": 151,
 "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": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Sir Impycu Lacquit, from over the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has led to the altar Miss Bloatie Bondee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wedding took place at the Church of St. Blare;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fashion, the rank and the wealth were all there⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No person was absent of all that one meets:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord Mammon himself bowed them into their seats,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While good Sir John Satan attended the door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Sexton Beëlzebub managed the floor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Respectfully keeping each dog to its rug⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Preserving the peace between poodle and pug.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twelve bridesmaids escorted the bride up the aisle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To blush in her blush and to smile in her smile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twelve groomsmen supported the eminent groom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To scowl in his scowl and to gloom in his gloom.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rites were performed by the hand and the lip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his Grace the Diocesan, Osculo Grip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Assisted by three able-bodied divines;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He prayed and they grunted, he read, they made signs.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such fashion, such beauty, such dressing, such grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were ne’er before seen in that heavenly place!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That night, full of gin and patrician pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sir Impycu blackened the eyes of his bride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}