{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-passing-of-shepherd",
 "title": "The Passing of Shepherd",
 "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": null,
 "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": 63,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The sullen church-bell’s intermittent moan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dirge’s melancholy monotone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The measured march, the drooping flags, attest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A great man’s progress to his place of rest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along broad avenues himself decreed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To serve his fellow men’s disputed need⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past parks he raped away from robbers’ thrift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gave to poverty, wherein to lift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its voice to curse the giver and the gift⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past noble structures that he reared for men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To meet in and revile him, tongue and pen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draws the long retinue of death to show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fit credentials of a proper woe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Boss” Shepherd, you are dead. Your hand no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throws largess to the mobs that ramp and roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For blood of benefactors who disdain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their purity of purpose to explain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their righteous motive and their scorn of gain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your period of dream⁠—’twas but a breath⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is closed in the indifference of death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sealed in your silences, to you alike",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If hands are lifted to applaud or strike,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more to your dull, inattentive ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Praise of to-day than curse of yesteryear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the same lips the honied phrases fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That still are bitter from cascades of gall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We note the shame; you in your depth of dark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The red-writ testimony cannot mark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On every honest cheek; your senses all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Locked, incommunicado, in your pall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Know not who sit and blush, who stand and bawl.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Seven Grecian cities claim great Homer dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through which the living Homer begged his bread.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Neglected genius!”⁠—that is sad indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But malice better would ignore than heed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Shepherd’s soul, we rightly may suspect,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prayed often for the mercy of neglect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When hardly did he dare to leave his door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without a guard behind him and before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To save him from the gentlemen that now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In cheap and easy reparation bow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heads hypocritical above his corse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To counterfeit a grief that’s half remorse.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The pageant passes and the exile sleeps,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And well his tongue the solemn secret keeps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the great peace he found afar, until,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death’s writ of extradition to fulfill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They brought him, helpless, from that friendly zone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be a show and pastime in his own⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A final opportunity to those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who fling with equal aim the stone and rose;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That at the living till his soul is freed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This at the body to conceal the deed!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lone on his hill he’s lying to await",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What added honors may befit his state⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The monument, the statue, or the arch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Where knaves may come to weep and dupes to march)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Builded by clowns to brutalize the scenes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His genius beautified. To get the means,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His newly good traducers all are dunned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For contributions to the conscience fund.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If each subscribe (and pay) one cent ’twill rear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A structure taller than their tallest ear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}