{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-spirit-of-a-sponge",
 "title": "The Spirit of a Sponge",
 "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": 11,
 "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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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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",
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    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 4.8 character advances (~2.4 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/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
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  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I dreamed one night that Stephen Massett died,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for admission up at Heaven applied.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who are you?” asked St. Peter. Massett said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Jeems Pipes, of Pipesville.” Peter bowed his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Opened the gates and said: “I’m glad to know you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wish we’d something better, sir, to show you.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Don’t mention it,” said Stephen, looking bland,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was about to enter, hat in hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When from a cloud below such fumes arose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As tickled tenderly his conscious nose.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He paused, replaced his hat upon his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned back and to the saintly warden said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er his already sprouting wings: “I swear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I smell some broiling going on down there!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So Massett’s paunch, attracted by the smell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Followed his nose and found a place in Hell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}