{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-confederate-flags",
 "title": "The Confederate Flags",
 "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": 201,
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Tut-tut! give back the flags⁠—how can you care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You veterans and heroes?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why should you at a kind intention swear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like twenty Neros?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Suppose the act was not so overwise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suppose it was illegal;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is’t well on such a question to arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pinch the Eagle?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, let’s economize his breath to scold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And terrify the alien",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who tackles him, as Hercules of old",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bird Stymphalian.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Among the rebels when we made a breach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was it to get their banners?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That was but incidental⁠—’twas to teach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Them better manners.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They know the lesson well enough to-day;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now, let us try to show them",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That we’re not only stronger far than they,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(How we did mow them!)",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But more magnanimous. My lads, ’tis plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas an uncommon riot;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The warlike tribes of Europe fight for gain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We fought for quiet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If we were victors, then we all must live",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the same flag above us;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas all in vain unless we now forgive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make them love us.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let kings keep trophies to display above",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their doors like any savage;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The freeman’s trophy is the foeman’s love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Despite war’s ravage.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Make treason odious?” My friends, you’ll find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You can’t, in right and reason,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While “Washington” and “treason” are combined⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Hugo” and “treason.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All human governments must take the chance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hazard of sedition.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O, wretch! to pledge your manhood in advance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To blind submission.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It may be wrong, it may be right, to rise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In warlike insurrection:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The loyalty that fools so dearly prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May mean subjection.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Be loyal to your country, yes⁠—but how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If tyrants hold dominion?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The South believed they did; can’t you allow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that opinion?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He who will never rise though rulers plot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His liberties despising⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How is he manlier than the sans-culottes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’s always rising?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Give back the foolish flags whose bearers fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too valiant to forsake them.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is it presumptuous, this counsel? Well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I helped to take them.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}