{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-psoriad",
 "title": "The Psoriad",
 "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": 106,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 4,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 9,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 32.5 character advances (~16.3 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 88,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 59,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The King of Scotland, years and years ago,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Convened his courtiers in a gallant row",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thus addressed them:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Gentle sirs, from you",
    "indent": 9
   },
   {
    "text": "Abundant counsel I have had, and true:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What laws to make to serve the public weal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What laws of Nature’s making to repeal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What old religion is the only true one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what the greater merit of some new one;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What friends of yours my favor have forgot;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which of your enemies against me plot.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In harvests ample to augment my treasures,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold the fruits of your sagacious measures!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The punctual planets, to their periods just,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attest your wisdom and approve my trust.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! the reward your faith and wisdom bring:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grateful placemen bless their useful king!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But while you quaff the nectar of my favor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I mean somewhat to modify its flavor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By just infusing a peculiar dash",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of tonic bitter in the calabash.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And should you, too abstemious, disdain it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Egad! I’ll hold your noses till you drain it!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You know, you dogs, your master long has felt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A keen distemper in the royal pelt⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A testy, superficial irritation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brought home, I fancy, from some foreign nation.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For this a thousand simples you’ve prescribed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unguents external, draughts to be imbibed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve plundered Scotland of its plants, the seas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve ravished, and despoiled the Hebrides",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To brew me remedies which, in probation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were sovereign only in their application.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain, and eke in pain, have I applied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your flattering unctions to my soul and hide:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Physic and hope have been my daily food⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve swallowed treacle by the holy rood!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Your wisdom which sufficed to guide the year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tame the seasons in their mad career,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When set to higher purposes has failed me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And added anguish to the ills that ailed me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor that alone, but each ambitious leech",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His rivals’ skill has labored to impeach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By hints equivocal in secret speech.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For years, to conquer our respective broils,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve plied each other with pacific oils",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain: your turbulence is unallayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My flame unquenched; your rioting unstayed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My life so wretched from your strife to save it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That death were welcome did I dare to brave it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With zeal inspired by your intemperate pranks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My subjects muster in contending ranks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those fling their banners to the startled breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To champion some royal ointment; these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The standard of some royal purge display",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ’neath that ensign wage a wasteful fray!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brave tongues are thundering from sea to sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Torrents of sweat roll reeking o’er the lea!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My people perish in their martial fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rival bagpipes cleave the royal ear!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Now, caitiffs, tremble, for this very hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your injured sovereign shall assert his power!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold this lotion, carefully compound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all the poisons you for me have found⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of biting washes such as tan the skin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drastic drinks to vex the parts within.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What aggravates an ailment will produce⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I mean to rub you with this dreadful juice!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Divided counsels you no more shall hatch⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At last you shall unanimously scratch.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kneel, villains, kneel, and doff your shirts⁠—God bless us!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’ll seem, when you resume them, robes of Nessus!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sovereign ceased, and, sealing what he spoke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Arthur’s Seat confirming thunders broke.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The conscious culprits, to their fate resigned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sank to their knees, all piously inclined.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This act, from high Ben Lomond where she floats,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thrifty goddess, Caledonia, notes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glibly as nimble sixpence, down she tilts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Headlong, and ravishes away their kilts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tears off each plaid and all their shirts discloses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Removes each shirt and their broad backs exposes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The king advanced⁠—then cursing fled amain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dashing the phial to the stony plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Where’t straight became a fountain brimming o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whence Father Tweed derives his liquid store)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For lo! already on each back sans stitch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The red sign manual of the Rosy Witch!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}