{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-binnacle",
 "title": "The Binnacle",
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "shapes-of-clay.xhtml",
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   "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": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
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  [
   {
    "text": "The Church’s compass, if you please,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has two or three (or more) degrees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of variation;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a soul has gone to grief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On this or that or t’other reef",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through faith unreckoning or brief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Miscalculation.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Misguidance is of perils chief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To navigation.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The obsequious thing makes, too, you’ll mark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obeisance through a little arc",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of declination;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "For Satan, fearing witches, drew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Death’s pale horse, one day, a shoe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nailed it to his door to undo",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their machination.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Since then the needle dips to woo",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His habitation.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}