{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/two-guides",
 "title": "Two Guides",
 "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": 55,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 1,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.8 character advances (~3.9 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.8 character advances (~3.9 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 3,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.9 character advances (~4.0 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 4,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.8 character advances (~3.9 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "You, Fitch, are known to be a Deacon⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "A shining light, a holy beacon",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the walls of Zion, blazing",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With an effulgency amazing.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And yet, I think, between the two",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Bob Ingersoll, I mean, and you)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A man in want of light to read",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the lines of nature’s Creed",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Would rather scrutinize Creation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Robert’s clear illumination,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than blind his eyes with smoke and vapor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From your infernal sputtering taper.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though Ingersoll, perchance, had not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wisdom or of truth one jot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d rather miss with him the clew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To life than follow it with you.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}