{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/to-my-bird",
 "title": "To My Bird",
 "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": 22,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "If I were screaming in a cage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine, parrot mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And you were rhyming on this page,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d try to shriek a fresher bit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wisdom to excite your wit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All you have said is nothing new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine, parrot mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By Jove, I taught it all to you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While you nor can, nor could, nor might",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have thought what I could care to write,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your life in order to maintain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine, parrot mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You daily dine upon my brain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My mind, a torn and mangled wreck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is disappearing down your neck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well, be it so: present your bill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine, parrot mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And on my virtues feast your fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My vices, though, will disagree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With you, my pet. They do with me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parrot mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}