{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-dog",
 "title": "To Dog",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-v",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 19,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1911,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume V (1911)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume V of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1911). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface states that most of its verses are republished from newspapers and periodicals of the Pacific Coast, and which of them printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Pervading pest! Old Adam, when he saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy prime progenitor, I doubt not, swore",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And kicked the curst kioodle from the door,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though now thy whelpage we protect by law.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In faith, thou must have been a beastly, raw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uncultivated monster many score",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Immemorable centuries before",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy rigor was by breeding made to thaw.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How racy of the soil thou must have been!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indigenous and close to nature’s heart!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How strong thy jaw-lock, habits how unclean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what a sink of infamy thy heart!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It may be, though, thou wert created upright.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If Man (the angels’ care) could fall, a pup might.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}