{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/silhouettes-of-orientals",
 "title": "Silhouettes of Orientals",
 "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": 8,
 "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": 49,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The Sultan is a Muscleman;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s full of vim and whack,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And if you want a tussle man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His back.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because he’s a Mahometan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They think him mighty slow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s quicker than a comet⁠—an",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Auto!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He doesn’t often waste a fit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But throws it where ’twill tell.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Blood? Yes, he likes the taste of it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right well.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That angel, the Bulgarian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is just a bird of pray.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His soul’s as white as Parian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They say.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His halo fits him pleasantly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he has two great wings.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He tunes his harp, and presently",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sings:",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My shoulder inoffensively",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bears this dear little chip.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass on, wayfarer, pensively⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t flip.”",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The thoughtful Moslem pins the chip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fast with a dagger. Oh,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That angel-person’s sins of lip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are low!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Armenian is a sassy cur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cantankerous to boot,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor draws the line at massacre",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loot.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when the Kurd in revelry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slays, burns, imprisons, fines,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That bad gent to the devil he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consigns.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My muse cannot exemplify",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Macedonian⁠—she",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Refuses to attempt to fly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So free.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Old Philip, King of Macedon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is many ages dead;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We have this little gassy don",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Instead.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Is he a Unitarian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Moslem, Buddhist, Jew⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or just a gowned barbarian",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With trousers on his Mary Ann?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t know⁠—do you?",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}