{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/thersites",
 "title": "Thersites",
 "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": null,
 "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": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "So, in the Sunday papers you, Del Mar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Damn, all great Englishmen in English speech?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I am no Englishman, but in my reach",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A rogue shall never rail where heroes are.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You are the man, if I mistake you not,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lately with a supplicating twitch",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Plucked at the pockets of the London rich,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And paid your share-engraver all you got.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Because that you have greatly lied, because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You libel nations, and because no hand",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of officer is raised to bid you stand,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And falsehood is unpunished of the laws,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I stand here in a public place to mark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With level finger where you part the crowd⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I stand to name you and to cry aloud:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "“Behold mendacity’s great hierarch!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}