{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/restored",
 "title": "Restored",
 "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": null,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dull were the days and sober,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mountains were brown and bare,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the season was sad October",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a dirge was in the air.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The mated starlings flew over",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the isles of the southern sea.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She wept for her warrior lover⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wept and exclaimed: “Ah, me!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Long years have I mourned my darling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his battle-bed at rest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And it’s O, to be a starling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a mate to share my nest!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The angels pitied her sorrow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Restoring her warrior’s life;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And he came to her arms on the morrow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To claim her and take her to wife.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An aged lover⁠—a portly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bald lover, a trifle too stiff,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With manners that would have been courtly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And would have been graceful, if⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If the angels had only restored him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without the additional years",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That had passed since the enemy bored him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To death with their long, sharp spears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As it was, he bored her, and she rambled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away with her father’s young groom,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the old lover smiled as he ambled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contentedly back to the tomb.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}