{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-hesitating-veteran",
 "title": "The Hesitating Veteran",
 "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": 35,
 "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": 64,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When I was young and full of faith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And other fads that youngsters cherish",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A cry rose as of one that saith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With emphasis: “Help or I perish!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas heard in all the land, and men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sound were each to each repeating.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It made my heart beat faster then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than any heart can now be beating.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For the world is old and the world is gray⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grown prudent and, I think, more witty.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s cut her wisdom teeth, they say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And doesn’t now go in for Pity.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Besides, the melancholy cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was that of one, ’tis now conceded,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose plight no one beneath the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Felt half so poignantly as he did.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Moreover, he was black. And yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That sentimental generation",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With an austere compassion set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its face and faith to the occasion.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then there were hate and strife to spare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And various hard knocks a-plenty;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I (’twas more than my true share,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must confess) took five-and-twenty.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That all is over now⁠—the reign",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of love and trade stills all dissensions,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the clear heavens arch again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above a land of peace and pensions.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The black chap⁠—at the last we gave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him everything that he had cried for,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though many white chaps in the grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twould puzzle to say what they died for.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I hope he’s better off⁠—I trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That his society and his master’s",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are worth the price we paid, and must",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Continue paying, in disasters;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But sometimes doubts press thronging round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(’Tis mostly when my hurts are aching)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If war for Union was a sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And profitable undertaking.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis said they mean to take away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Negro’s vote for he’s unlettered.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis true he sits in darkness day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And night, as formerly, when fettered;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But pray observe⁠—howe’er he vote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To whatsoever party turning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He’ll be with gentlemen of note",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wealth and consequence and learning.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With saints and sages on each side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How could a fool through lack of knowledge,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Vote wrong? If learning is no guide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why ought one to have been in college?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O Son of Day, O Son of Night!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What are your preferences made of?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not which of you is right,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor which to be the more afraid of.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The world is old and the world is bad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And creaks and grinds upon its axis;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And man’s an ape and the gods are mad!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s nothing sure, not even our taxes.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No mortal man can Truth restore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or say where she is to be sought for.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know what uniform I wore⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O, that I knew which side I fought for!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}