{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/polyphemus",
 "title": "Polyphemus",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas a sick young man with a face ungay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And an eye that was all alone;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And he shook his head in a hopeless way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he sat on a roadside stone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, ailing youth, what untoward fate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has made the sun to set",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On your mirth and eye?” “I’m constrained to state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m an ex-West Point cadet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Twas at cannon-practice I got my hurt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my present frame of mind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the gun went off with a double spurt⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before it, and also behind!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“How sad, how sad, that a fine young chap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When studying how to kill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should meet with so terrible a mishap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Precluding eventual skill.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ah, woeful to think that a weapon made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For mowing down the foe",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should commit so dreadful an escapade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to turn about to mow!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No more he heeded while I condoled:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was wandering in his mind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His lonely eye unconsidered rolled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his views he thus defined:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Twas O for a breach of the peace⁠—’twas O",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For an international brawl!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But a piece of the breech⁠—ah no, ah no,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I didn’t want that at all.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}