{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-man-born-blind",
 "title": "The Man Born Blind",
 "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": 198,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 15,
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  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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  [
   {
    "text": "A man born blind received his sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a painful operation;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And these are things he saw in the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an infant observation.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He saw a merchant, good and wise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And greatly, too, respected,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who looked, to those imperfect eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a swindler undetected.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He saw a patriot address",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A noisy public meeting.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “Why, that’s a calf. I guess,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That for the teat is bleating.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A doctor stood beside a bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shook his summit sadly.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“O see that foul assassin!” said",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man who saw so badly.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He saw a lawyer pleading for",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A thief whom they’d been jailing,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “That’s an accomplice or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sight again is failing.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upon the Bench a Justice sat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With nothing to restrain him;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“ ’Tis strange,” said the observer, “that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They ventured to unchain him.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With theologic works supplied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw a solemn preacher;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“A burglar with his kit,” he cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To rob a fellow creature.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A bluff old farmer next he saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sell produce in a village,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “What, what! is there no law",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To punish men for pillage?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A dame, tall, fair and stately, passed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who many charms united;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He thanked his stars his lot was cast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where sepulchers were whited.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He saw a soldier stiff and stern,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Full of strange oaths” and toddy,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But was unable to discern",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wound upon his body.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ten square leagues of rolling ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To one great man belonging,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Looked like one little grassy mound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With worms beneath it thronging.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A palace’s well-carven stones,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Dives dwelt contented,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed built throughout of human bones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With human blood cemented.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He watched the shining yellow thread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A silk-worm was a-spinning;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“That creature’s coining gold,” he said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To pay some girl for sinning.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His eyes were so untrained and dim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All politics, religions,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arts, sciences, appeared to him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But modes of plucking pigeons.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so he drew his final breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought he saw with sorrow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some persons weeping for his death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’d be all smiles to-morrow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}