{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-jack-of-clubs",
 "title": "The Jack of Clubs",
 "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": 16,
 "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": 33,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Jerome, you are a mighty famous man⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "District Attorney, I believe they call you.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some shout your praise as loudly as they can,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some, apparently, just live to maul you.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But whether good or ill repute befall you,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your critics can’t deny that, as a rule,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You take it standing⁠—though the wits among",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Them say you stand, as does the singing mule,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The better to perform your feats of lung.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, truly from the dawning to the gloaming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When in good voice, you’re usually Jeroming.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, well, we must have music⁠—’tis a need,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Ibsen, Shaw or the “Edenic diet”;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though sometimes silence is desired⁠—indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s much that may be said in praise of quiet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And possibly you might do worse than try it.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twere better, anyhow, than fool advice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the police to club their fellow men,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Too sore already. Sir, it is not nice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To free your snouty virtues from the pen⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unless, as once in Gadara, they’ll scamper",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down a steep place to where ’tis greatly damper.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Jerome, the best of us are those who care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hide from view the monsters that inhabit",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our hearts, and when too closely questioned swear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve nothing fiercer than a sheep or rabbit.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeing an opportunity, you grab it",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lifting up the curtain, show the whole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Menagerie of thoughts and feelings which",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Infest the secret places of your soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like newts and water-puppies in a ditch.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O, great reformer! hide from observation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unpleasing spectacle of Reformation.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}