{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-van-nessiad",
 "title": "The Van Nessiad",
 "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": 113,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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   "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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 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
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  "longest_line_chars": 56,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "From end to end, thine avenue, Van Ness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rang with the cries of battle and distress!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Brave lungs were thundering with dreadful sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And perspiration smoked along the ground!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing, heavenly muse, to ears of mortal clay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The meaning, cause and finish of the fray.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Great Porter Ashe (invoking first the gods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who signed their favor with assenting nods",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That snapped off half their heads⁠—their necks grown dry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since last the nectar cup went circling by)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resolved to build a stable on his lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His neighbors fiercely swearing he should not.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said he: “I build that stable!” “No, you don’t,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said they. “I can!” “You can’t!” “I will!” “You won’t!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“By heaven!” he swore; “not only will I build,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But purchase donkeys till the place is filled!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Needless expense,” they sneered in tones of ice⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The owner’s self, if lodged there, would suffice.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For three long months the awful war they waged:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With women, women, men with men engaged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While roaring babes and shrilling poodles raged!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Jove, from Olympus, where he still maintains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His ancient session (with rheumatic pains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Touched by his long exposure) marked the strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Interminable but by loss of life;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For malediction soon exhausts the breath⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If not, old age itself is certain death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! he holds high in heaven the fatal beam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A golden pan depends from each extreme;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One feels of Porter’s fate the downward stress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One bears the destiny of all Van Ness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! the rusted scales, their life all gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deliver judgment neither pro nor con:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dooms hang level and the war goes on.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a divine, contemptuous disesteem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jove dropped the pans and kicked, himself, the beam:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, to decide the strife, with ready wit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The nickel that he did not care for it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twirled absently, remarking: “See it spin:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Head, Porter loses; tail, the others win.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The conscious nickel, charged with doom, spun round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Portentously and made a ringing sound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, staggering beneath its load of fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sank rattling, died at last and lay in state.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Jove scanned the disk and then, as is his wont,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Raised his considering orbs, exclaiming: “Front!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With leisurely alacrity approached",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The herald god, to whom his mind he broached:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“In San Francisco two belligerent Powers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such as contended round great Ilion’s towers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fight for a stable, though in either class",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s not a horse, and but a single ass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Achilles Ashe, with formidable jaw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Assails a Trojan band with fierce hee-haw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Firing the night with brilliant curses. They",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dark vituperation gloom the day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fate, against which nor gods nor men compete,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Decrees their victory and his defeat.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With haste, good Mercury, betake thee hence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And salivate him till he has no sense!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sheer downward shot the messenger afar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trailing a splendor like a falling star!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dimming lustre through the air he burned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vanished, but with another sun returned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sovereign of the gods superior smiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beaming benignant, fatherly and mild:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Is Destiny’s decree performed, my lad?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And has he now no sense?” “Ah, sire, he never had.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}