{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-last-man",
 "title": "The Last Man",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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   "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",
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
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  "longest_line_chars": 46,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I dreamed that Gabriel took his horn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Resurrection’s fateful morn,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And lighting upon Laurel Hill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blew long, blew loud, blew high and shrill.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The houses compassing the ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rattled their windows at the sound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But no one rose. “Alas!” said he,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What lazy bones these mortals be!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again he plied the horn, again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deflating both his lungs in vain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then stood astonished and chagrined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At raising nothing but the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At last he caught the tranquil eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an observer standing by⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last of mankind, not doomed to die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To him thus Gabriel: “Sir, I pray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This mystery you’ll clear away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why do I sound my note in vain?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why spring they not from out the plain?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’s Luning, Blythe and Michael Reese,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Magee, who ran the Golden Fleece?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’s Asa Fisk? Jim Phelan, who",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was thought to know a thing or two",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of land which rose but never sank?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’s Con O’Conor of the Bank,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all who consecrated lands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of old by laying on of hands?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I ask of them because their worth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was known in all they wished⁠—the earth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brisk boomers once, alert and wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why don’t they rise, why don’t they rise?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man replied: “Reburied long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With others of the shrouded throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In San Mateo⁠—carted there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dumped promiscuous, anywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In holes and trenches⁠—all misfits⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mixed up with one another’s bits:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One’s back-bone with another’s shin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A third one’s skull with a fourth one’s grin⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your eye was never, never fixed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon a company so mixed!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go now among them there and blow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twill be as good as any show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see them, when they hear the tones,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Compiling one another’s bones!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But here ’tis vain to sound and wait:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Naught rises here but real estate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I own it all and shan’t disgorge.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t know me? I am Henry George.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}