{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-piute",
 "title": "The Piute",
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Unbeautiful is the Piute!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Howe’er bedecked with bravery,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His person is unsavory⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of soap he’s destitute.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He multiplies upon the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In spite of all admonishing;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All censure his astonishing",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And versatile unworth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upon the Reservation wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We give for his inhabiting",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He goes a-jackass rabbiting",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To furnish his inside.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The hopper singing in the grass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He seizes with avidity:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He loves its tart acidity,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And gobbles all that pass.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He penetrates the spider’s veil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Industriously pillages",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The toads’ defenseless villages,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And shadows home the snail.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He lightly runs to earth the quaint",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Red worm and, deftly troweling,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He makes it with his boweling",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Familiarly acquaint.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He tracks the pine-nut to its lair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surrounds it with celerity,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Regards it with asperity⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Smiles, and it isn’t there!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I wish he’d open up a grin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of adequate vivacity",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And carrying capacity",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To take his Agent in.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}