{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-town-of-dae",
 "title": "The Town of Dae",
 "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": "Swains and maidens, young and old, / You to me this tale have told.",
 "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": 147,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where the squalid town of Dae",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Irks the comfortable sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spreading webs to gather fish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As for wealth we set a wish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwelt a king by right divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sprung from Adam’s royal line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Divers kinds of kings there be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Name nor fame had Picklepip:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ne’er a soldier nor a ship",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bore his banners in the sun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Naught knew he of kingly sport,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And he held his royal court",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Under an inverted tun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love and roses, ages through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bloom where cot and trellis stand;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Never yet these blossoms grew⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never yet was room for two⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a cask upon the strand.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So it happened, as it ought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That his simple schemes he wrought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the lagging summer’s day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a solitary way.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So it happened, as was best,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That he took his nightly rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With no dreadful weight of woe,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This way eyed and that way tressed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Featured thus, and thus, and so,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lying lead-like on a breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By cares of state enough oppressed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet in dreams his fancy rude",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Claimed a lordly latitude.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreamers mate above their state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And waken back to their degree.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once to cask himself away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He prepared at close of day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he tugged with swelling throat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At a most unkingly coat⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not to get it off, but on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the serving sun was gone⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passed a silk-appareled sprite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toward her castle on the height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seized and set the garment right.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned the startled Picklepip⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Splendid crimson cheek and lip!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned again to sneak away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she bade the villain stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bade him thank her, which he did",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a speech that slipped and slid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sprawled and stumbled in its gait",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a dancer tries to skate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the face of silk and lace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rags too bold should never be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lady Minnow cocked her head:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Mister Picklepip,” she said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Do you ever think to wed?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No fair lady ever made a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wicked speech like that to me!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wretched little Picklepip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said he hadn’t any ship,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Any flocks at his command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor to feed them any land;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said he never in his life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Owned a mine to keep a wife.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the guilty stammer so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That his meaning wouldn’t flow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So he thought his aim to reach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By some figurative speech:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said his Fate had been unkind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had pursued him from behind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(How the mischief could it else?)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Came upon him unaware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught him all too roughly⁠—there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gushed the little lady’s glee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a gush of golden bells:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Picklepip, why, that is me!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Grammar’s for great scholars⁠—she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loved the summer and the lea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Stupid little Picklepip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Allowed the subtle hint to slip⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Maundered on about the ship",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That he did not chance to own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Told this grievance o’er and o’er,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowing that she knew before;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Told her how he dwelt alone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lady Minnow, for reply,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cut him off with “So do I!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she reddened at the fib;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Servitors had she, ad lib.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In her youth who speaks no truth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ne’er shall young and honest be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Witless little Picklepip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Manned again his mental ship",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And veered her with a sudden shift.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Painted to the lady’s thought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How he wrestled and he wrought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Stoutly with the swimming drift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the kindly river brought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the mountain to the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fuel for the town of Dae.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tedious tale for lady’s ear:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From her castle on the height,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She had watched her water-knight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the seasons of a year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Challenge more than met his view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And conquer better than he knew.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now she shook her pretty pate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stamped her foot⁠—’twas growing late:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Mister Picklepip, when I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drifting seaward pass you by;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the waves my forehead kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my tresses float above⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dead and drowned for lack of love⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ll be sorry, sir, for this!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the silly creature cried⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feared, perchance, the rising tide.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Madam Adam, when she had ’em,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May have been as bad as she.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fiat lux! Love’s lumination",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell in floods of revelation!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blinded brain by world aglare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sense of pulses in the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sense of swooning and the beating",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a voice somewhere repeating",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Something indistinctly heard!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the soul of Picklepip",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sprang upon his trembling lip,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But he spake no further word",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the wealth he did not own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that moment had outgrown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ship and mine and flock and land⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even his cask upon the strand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dropped a stricken star to earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Type of wealth and worldly worth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clomb the moon into the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Type of love’s immensity!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shaking silver seemed the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throne of God the town of Dae!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Town of Dae by the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From above there cometh love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blessing all good souls that be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}