{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/privation",
 "title": "Privation",
 "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": 48,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "With her grief the widow was so engrossed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As she rode at the hearse’s rear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That I really think the dead man’s ghost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must have shed the ghost of a tear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She murmured and moaned and wiped her eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And blew her pale nose for relief,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then started and cried, as in pained surprise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I’ve forgotten my handkerchief!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“O, what shall I do when we get to the grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the coffin is put in the ground?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know I shall weep, for I cannot be brave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With those staring people all round.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Be calm,” said one; “there is nothing forgot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For your handkerchief you bring⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You are holding it⁠—see.” Said the widow: “What!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This pokey old linen thing?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}