{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-farmers-prayer",
 "title": "The Farmer’s Prayer",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-v",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1911,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V (1911)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume V of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1911). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface states that most of its verses are republished from newspapers and periodicals of the Pacific Coast, and which of them printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Lord, incline Thine ear unto our prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And preachers’ intercession:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This strange discrimination is unfair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s our impression.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Our neighbors all about have copious rains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That fall on them like manna.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Send us the showers, Lord, and parch the plains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Indiana.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upon the just and unjust, sayest Thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou’lt sprinkle without favor.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sin of promise-breaking, all allow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could not be graver.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We’re just, and still our whistles are not wet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still ’tis growing hotter;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While every scamp in Michigan can get",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His fill of water.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We ask but justice: treat us not with scorn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our comfort make less chilly;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And those who pray for an advance in corn⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O smite them silly!",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let corn be plentiful, and cheap: our hops",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look well without a shower;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve sold our wheat: that profitable crop’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond Thy power.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ]
 ]
}