{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-e-s-salomon",
 "title": "To E. S. Salomon",
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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   "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": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 17,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "What! Salomon! such words from you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who call yourself a soldier? Well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Southern brother where he fell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Slept all your base oration through.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alike to him⁠—he cannot know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your praise or blame: as little harm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your tongue can do him as your arm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A quarter-century ago.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The brave respect the brave. The brave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Respect the dead; but you⁠—you draw",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That ancient blade, the ass’s jaw,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And shake it o’er a hero’s grave.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Are you not he who makes to-day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A merchandise of old renown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which he persuades this easy town",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He won in battle far away?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, those the fallen who revile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have ne’er before the living stood",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And stoutly made their battle good",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And greeted danger with a smile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What if the dead whom still you hate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were wrong? Are you so surely right?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We know the issue of the fight⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sword is but an advocate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men live and die, and other men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise with knowledges diverse:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What seemed a blessing seems a curse,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Now is still at odds with Then.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The years go on, the old comes back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To mock the new⁠—beneath the sun.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is nothing new; ideas run",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Recurrent in an endless track.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What most we censure, men as wise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have reverently practiced; nor",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will future wisdom fail to war",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On principles we dearly prize.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We do not know⁠—we can but deem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he is loyalest and best",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who takes the light full on his breast",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And follows it throughout the dream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The broken light, the shadows wide⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold the battle-field displayed!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God save the vanquished from the blade,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The victor from the victor’s pride!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If, Salomon, the blessed dew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That falls upon the Blue and Gray",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is powerless to wash away",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sin of differing from you.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Remember how the flood of years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has rolled across the erring slain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Remember, too, the cleansing rain",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of widows’ and of orphans’ tears.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dead are dead⁠—let that atone:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And though with equal hand we strew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The blooms on saint and sinner too,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet God will know to choose his own.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The wretch, whate’er his life and lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who does not love the harmless dead",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With all his heart and all his head⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "May God forgive him⁠—I shall not.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When, Salomon, you come to quaff",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Darker Cup with meeker face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I, loving you at last, shall trace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon your tomb this epitaph:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Draw near, ye generous and brave⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kneel round this monument and weep",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For one who tried in vain to keep",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A flower from a soldier’s grave.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}