{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-gods-view-point",
 "title": "The God’s View-Point",
 "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": 110,
 "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": 84,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Cheeta Raibama Chunder Sen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wisest and the best of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Betook him to the place where sat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With folded feet upon a mat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of precious stones beneath a palm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sweet and everlasting calm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That ancient and immortal gent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The God of Rational Content.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As tranquil and unmoved as Fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deity reposed in state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With palm to palm and sole to sole,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And beaded breast and beetling jowl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And belly spread upon his thighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And costly diamonds for eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As Chunder Sen approached and knelt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show the reverence he felt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then beat his head upon the sod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To prove his fealty to the god;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then by gestures signified",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other sentiments inside;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The god’s right eye (as Chunder Sen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wisest and the best of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Half-fancied) grew by just a thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More narrow than it truly ought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet still that prince of devotees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Persistent upon bended knees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And elbows bored into the earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Declared the god’s exceeding worth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And begged his favor. Then at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within that cavernous and vast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thoracic space was heard a sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like that of water underground⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A gurgling note that found a vent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At mouth of that Immortal Gent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In such a chuckle as no ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had e’er been privileged to hear!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Cheeta Raibama Chunder Sen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wisest, greatest, best of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard with a natural surprise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That mighty midriff improvise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And greater yet the marvel was",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When from between those massive jaws",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell words to make the views more plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The god was pleased to entertain:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Cheeta Raibama Chunder Sen,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So ran the rede in speech of men⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Foremost of mortals in assent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To creed of Rational Content,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why come you here to impetrate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A blessing on your scurvy pate?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can you not rationally be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Content without disturbing me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can you not take a hint⁠—a wink⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of what of all this rot I think?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is laughter lost upon you quite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To check you in your pious rite?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What! know you not we gods protest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all religion is a jest?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You take me seriously?⁠—you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About me make a great ado",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(When I but wish to be alone)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With attitudes supine and prone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With genuflections and with prayers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And putting on of solemn airs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To draw my mind from the survey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Rational Content away!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Learn once for all, if learn you can,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This truth, significant to man:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pious person is by odds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The one most hateful to the gods.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then stretching forth his great right hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which shadowed all that sunny land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That deity bestowed a touch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which Chunder Sen not overmuch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enjoyed⁠—a touch divine that made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sufferer hear stars! They played",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sang as on Creation’s morn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When spheric harmony was born.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Cheeta Raibama Chunder Sen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The most astonished man of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell straight asleep, and when he woke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deity nor moved nor spoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But sat beneath that ancient palm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sweet and everlasting calm.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}