{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/laus-lucis",
 "title": "Laus Lucis",
 "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": 45,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 46,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Each to his taste: some men prefer to play",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At mystery, as others at piquet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some sit in mystic meditation; some",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parade the street with tambourine and drum.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One studies to decipher ancient lore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, proving stuff, he studies all the more;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Another swears that learning is but good",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To darken things already understood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then writes upon Simplicity so well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That none agree on what he wants to tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And future ages will declare his pen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inspired by gods with messages to men.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To found an ancient order, these devote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their time⁠—with ritual, regalia, goat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blankets for tossing, chairs of little ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the modern inconveniences;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those, saner, frown upon unmeaning rites",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And go to church for rational delights.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So all are suited, shallow and profound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prophets prosper and the world goes round.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For me⁠—unread in the occult, I’m fain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To damn all mysteries alike as vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spurn the obscure and base my faith upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Revelations of the good St. John.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}