{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/t-a-h",
 "title": "T. A. H.",
 "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": 19,
 "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": {
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  "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": {
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  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 53,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, he was that, or that, as you prefer⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did so-and-so, though, faith, it wasn’t all;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lived like a fool, or a philosopher,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had whatever’s needful to a fall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As rough inflections on a planet merge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the true bend of the gigantic sphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor mar the perfect circle of its verge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So in the survey of his worth the small",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Asperities of spirit disappear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost in the grander curves of character.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He lately was hit hard: none knew but I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strength and terror of that ghastly stroke⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not even herself. He uttered not a cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But set his teeth and made a revelry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drank like a devil⁠—staining sometimes red",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The goblet’s edge; diced with his conscience; spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Sisyphus, a feast for Death, and spoke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His welcome in a tongue so long forgot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That even his ancient guest remembered not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What race had cursed him in it. Thus my friend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still conjugating with each failing sense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The verb “to die” in every mood and tense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pursued his awful humor to the end.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When like a stormy dawn the crimson broke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From his white lips he smiled and mutely bled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, having meanly lived, is grandly dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}