{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/tempora-mutantur",
 "title": "Tempora Mutantur",
 "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": 95,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“The world is dull,” I cried in my despair:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Its myths and fables are no longer fair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Roll back thy centuries, O Father Time:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Greece transport me in her golden prime.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Give back the beautiful old gods again⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sportive Nymphs, the Dryad’s jocund train,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Pan piping on his reeds, the Naiades,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Sirens singing by the sleepy seas.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nay, show me but a Gorgon and I’ll dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To lift mine eyes to her peculiar hair",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“(The fatal horrors of her snaky pate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stiffen men into a stony state)",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And die⁠—becoming, as my spirit flies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A noble statue of myself, life size.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Straight as I spoke I heard the voice of Fate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Look up, my lad, the Gorgon sisters wait.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lifting my eyes, I saw Medusa stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stheno, Euryale, on either hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I gazed unpetrified and unappalled⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The girls had aged and were entirely bald!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}