{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-oakland-dog",
 "title": "The Oakland Dog",
 "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": 34,
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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   "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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    "date": "2026-08-20"
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 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 76,
  "n_stanzas": 19,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 2
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I lay one happy night in bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dreamed that all the dogs were dead.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "They’d all been taken out and shot⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their bodies strewed each vacant lot.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O’er all the earth, from Berkeley down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To San Leandro’s ancient town,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And out in space as far as Niles⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw their mortal parts in piles.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One stack upreared its ridge so high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the azure of the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That some good soul, with pious views,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Put up a steeple and sold pews.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No wagging tail the scene relieved:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I never in my life conceived",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(I swear it on the Decalogue!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such penury of living dog.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The barking and the howling stilled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The snarling with the snarler killed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All nature seemed to hold its breath:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silence was as deep as death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "True, candidates were all in roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On every platform, as before;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And villains, as before, felt free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To finger the calliope.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "True, the Salvationist by night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And milkman in the early light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lonely flutist and the mill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Performed their functions with a will.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "True, church bells on a Sunday rang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sick man’s curtain down⁠—the bang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of trains, contesting for the track,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the shadow called him back.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "True, cocks, at all unheavenly hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crew with excruciating powers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cats on the woodshed rang and roared;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fat citizens and fog-horns snored.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But this was all too fine for ears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Accustomed, through the awful years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the nocturnal monologues",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And day debates of Oakland dogs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so the world was silent. Now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What else befell⁠—to whom and how?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imprimis, then, there were no fleas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And days of worth brought nights of ease.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men walked about without the dread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of being torn to many a shred,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each fragment holding half a cruse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hydrophobia’s quickening juice.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They had not to propitiate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some curst kioodle at each gate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But entered one another’s grounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unscared, and were not fed to hounds.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Women could drive and not a pup",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would lift the horse’s tendons up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let them go⁠—to interject",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A certain musical effect.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Even children’s ponies went about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All grave and sober-paced, without",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bulldog hanging to each nose⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proud of his fragrance, I suppose.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dog being dead, Man’s lawless flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burned out: he granted Woman’s claim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children’s and those of country, art⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They all took lodgings in his heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When memories of his former shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crimsoned his cheeks with sudden flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He said; “I know my fault too well⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They fawned upon me and I fell.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! ’twas a lovely world!⁠—no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I met that indisposing bore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unseraphic cynogogue⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man who’s proud to love a dog.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus in my dream the golden reign",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Reason filled the world again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all mankind confessed her sway,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Walnut Creek to San Jose.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}