{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-a-summer-poet",
 "title": "To a Summer 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": 27,
 "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": 33,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, the Summer girl is flirting on the beach,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a him.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the damboy is a-climbing for the peach,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the limb;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, the bullfrog is a-croaking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dudelet is a-smoking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cigarettes;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the hackman is a-hacking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the showman is a-cracking",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up his pets;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, the Jersey ’skeeter flits along the shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the snapdog⁠—we have heard it o’er and o’er;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, my poet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Well we know it⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Know the spooners how they spoon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the bright",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dollar light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the country tavern moon;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, the caterpillars fall",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the trees (we know it all),",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And with beetles all the shelves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are alive.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Please unbuttonhole us⁠—O,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have the grace to let us go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For we know",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "How you Summer poets thrive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the recapitulation",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And insistent iteration",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the wondrous doings incident to Life Among Ourselves!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, I pray you stop the fervor and the fuss.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For you, poor human linnet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a half a living in it,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But there’s not a copper cent in it for us!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}