{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-gates-ajar",
 "title": "The Gates Ajar",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 79,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The Day of Judgment spread its glare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er continents and seas.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The graves cracked open everywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like pods of early peas.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up to the Court of Heaven sped",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The souls of all mankind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Republicans were at the head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Democrats behind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Reub Lloyd was there before the tube",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Gabriel could call:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dead in Christ rise first, and Reub",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had risen first of all.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sat beside the Throne of Flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As, to the trumpet’s sound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Four statesmen of the Party came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ranged themselves around⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pure spirits shining like the sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From taint and blemish free⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Great William Stow was there for one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And George A. Knight for three.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Souls less indubitably white",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Approached with anxious air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Judge Blake at head of them by right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of having been a Mayor.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His ermine he had donned again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long laid away in gums.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas soiled a trifle by the stains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of politicians’ thumbs.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Knight addressed the Judge of Heaven:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Your Honor, would it trench",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On custom here if Blake were given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A seat upon the Bench?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas done. “Tom Shannon!” Peter cried.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He came, without ado,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In forma pauperis was tried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was acquitted, too!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Stow rose, remarking: “I concur.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lloyd added: “That suits us.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I move Tom’s nomination, sir,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be made unanimous.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}