{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-golden-age",
 "title": "The Golden Age",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 12,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 35,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Long ago the world was finer⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why it failed I do not know:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All the virtues were diviner;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Robber, miser, and maligner",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had not been created. No,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Truth and honor flourished, though.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long ago.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sages in procession stalking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moved majestic to and fro,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And each lowly mortal walking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their shadow stilled his talking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heeding the sonorous flow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their wisdom, loud or low,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long ago.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Angel Woman, younger, fairer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far than she that now we know,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave men meeting with a rarer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grace. No graybeard cried, “Beware her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tongue and temper!” She was slow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To wrath. I tell you that was so,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long ago.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, the miracle of morning.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Setting all the world aglow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a smile of light adorning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s own face, held no forewarning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the tempest that would blow⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sign and prophecy of woe,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long ago.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hope from every hilltop beckoned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the happy throngs below;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And they confidently reckoned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a hero every second.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Best of all that goodly show,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I was but a laddie⁠—O,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So long ago!",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ]
 ]
}