{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-bridget",
 "title": "To Bridget",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 20,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Have ye heard what the news is, me darlint?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Fenians have threatened the Pope!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But, begorra, I think there’s a snarl in’t",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s twisted it up like a rope.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From a kink in the telescope.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the news, ye must know, Biddy, reaches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This counthry by means of a wire;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sometimes the heat o’ the speeches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Just warrups it up like a fire.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Faith! who but the Divil would bother",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The likes o’ the Howly Father?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the Divil is in it, I’m fearin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When a gintleman’s called on to chuse",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Betwixt Howly Church and Ould Erin⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shamrock and harp to refuse,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or be like the murtherin’ Jews.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Och! Biddy, me mind it is troublin’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To know where me body’s at home⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With half o’ me sowl there in Dublin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And t’other half over in Rome!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bedad, there’s a shplit in the party",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the name of O’Malley McCarty!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}