{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-pun",
 "title": "The Pun",
 "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": 100,
 "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": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Hail, peerless Pun! thou last and best,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Most rare and excellent bequest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dying idiot to the wit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He died of, rat-like, in a pit!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thyself disguised, in many a way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou let’st thy sudden splendor play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adorning all where’er it turns,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the revealing bull’s-eye burns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the dim thief, and plays its trick",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the lock he means to pick.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet sometimes, too, thou dost appear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As boldly as a brigadier",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tricked out with marks and signs, all o’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of rank, brigade, division, corps,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show by every means he can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An officer is not a man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or naked, with a lordly swagger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proud as a cur without a wagger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who says: “See simple worth prevail⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All dog, sir⁠—not a bit of tail!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis then men give thee loudest welcome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if thou wert a soul from Hell come.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O obvious Pun! thou hast the grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of skeleton clock without a case⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all its boweling displayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all its organs on parade.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear Pun, thou’rt common ground of bliss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Punch and I can meet and kiss;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than thee my wit can stoop no lower⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No higher his does ever soar.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}