{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/mr-sheets",
 "title": "Mr. Sheets",
 "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": 55,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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  [
   {
    "text": "The Devil stood before the gate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Heaven. He had a single mate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behind him, in his shadow, slunk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clay Sheets in a perspiring funk.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Saint Peter, see this season ticket,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Satan; “pray undo the wicket.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sleepy Saint threw slight regard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the proffered bit of card,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Signed by some sacerdotal cheats:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Admit the bearer and Clay Sheets.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peter expanded all his eyes:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Clay Sheets?’⁠—well, I’ll be damned!” he cries.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Our couches are of golden cloud;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing of earth is here allowed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll let you in,” he added, shedding",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Nick a smile⁠—“but not your bedding.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}