{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/llewellyn-powell",
 "title": "Llewellyn Powell",
 "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": null,
 "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,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": 59,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Villain, when the word is spoken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And your chains at last are broken;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the gibbet’s chilling shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ceases darkly to enfold you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the angel who enrolled you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a master of the trade",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of assassination sadly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blots the record he has made,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And your name and title paints",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the calendar of saints;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the devils, dancing madly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the midmost Hell, are very",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Multitudinously merry⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then beware, beware, beware!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nemesis is everywhere!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You shall hear her at your back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, your hunted visage turning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fancy that her eyes are burning",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a tiger’s on your track!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You shall hear her in the breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whispering to summer trees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You shall hear her calling, calling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To your spirit through the storm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the giant billows form",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the splintered lightning, falling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the heights of Heaven, appalling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Splendors all the tossing seas!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On your bed at night reclining,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stars into your chamber shining",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As they roll around the Pole,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "None their purposes divining,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall appear to search your soul,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And to gild the mark of Cain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That burns into your tortured brain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dead man’s eyes shall ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meet your own wherever you,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Desperate, shall turn you to,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And you shall escape them never!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By your heritage of guilt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the blood that you have spilt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the Law that you have broken;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the terrible red token",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you bear upon your brow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By the awful sentence spoken",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And irrevocable vow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which consigns you to a living",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death and to the unforgiving",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Furies who avenge your crime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the periods of time;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By that dread eternal doom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hinted in your future’s gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the flames infernal tell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their power and perfection",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their wavering reflection",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the battlements of Hell;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By the mercy you denied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I condemn your guilty soul",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In your body to abide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a serpent in a hole!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}