{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-a-dejected-poet",
 "title": "To a Dejected Poet",
 "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": 126,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy gift, if that it be of God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast no warrant to appraise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor say: “Here part, O Muse, our ways,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The road too stony to be trod.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not thine to call the labor hard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the reward inadequate.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who haggles o’er his hire with Fate",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is better bargainer than bard.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What! count the effort labor lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thy good angel holds the reed?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It were a sorry thing indeed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To stay him till thy palm be crossed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The laborer is worthy”⁠—nay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sacred ministry of song",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is rapture!⁠—’twere a grievous wrong",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To fix a wages-rate for play.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}