{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-king-of-bores",
 "title": "The King of Bores",
 "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": 182,
 "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 2
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Abundant bores afflict this world, and some",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are bores of magnitude that come and⁠—no,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They’re always coming, but they never go⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like funeral pageants, as they drone and hum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their lurid nonsense like a muffled drum,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or bagpipe’s dread, unnecessary flow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But one superb tormentor I can show⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Prince Fiddlefaddle, Duc de Feefawfum.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He the johndonkey is who, when I pen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amorous verses in an idle mood",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To nobody, or of her, reads them through",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And, smirking, says he knows the lady; then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calls me sly dog. I wish he understood",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This tender sonnet’s application too.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}