{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/incivism",
 "title": "Incivism",
 "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": 28,
 "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“He’s no good citizen!” the crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of politicians cries aloud.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“How so?” says one.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Because⁠—why, curse",
    "indent": 9
   },
   {
    "text": "The man! while we deplete his purse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some air contentedly he hums,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or twiddles his incivic thumbs.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“What more could you desire?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The whelp!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We want him to stand in and help.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Two crowds contend, his purse to twist",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away⁠—pray which should he assist?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“It matters not whose hand unsacks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His shekels, for we all go snacks.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}