{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-following-pair",
 "title": "The Following Pair",
 "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": 90,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O very remarkable mortal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What food is engaging your jaws",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And staining with amber their portal?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“It’s ’baccy I chaws.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And why do you sway in your walking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To right and left many degrees,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And hitch up your trousers when talking?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I follers the seas.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Great indolent shark in the rollers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is “ ’baccy,” too, one of your faults?⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You, too, display maculate molars.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I dines upon salts.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strange diet!⁠—intestinal pain it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is commonly given to nip.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And how can you ever obtain it?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I follers the ship.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}