{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/two-rogues",
 "title": "Two Rogues",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 118,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
 "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": 34,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dim, grim, and silent as a ghost,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sentry occupied his post,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To all the stirrings of the night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alert of ear and sharp of sight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sudden something⁠—sight or sound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About, above, or underground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He knew not what, nor where⁠—ensued,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrilling the sleeping solitude.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soldier cried: “Halt! Who goes there?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The answer came: “Death⁠—in the air.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Advance, Death⁠—give the countersign,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or perish if you cross that line!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To change his tone Death thought it wise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reminded him they’d been allies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the Russ, the Frank, the Turk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In many a bloody bit of work.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“In short,” said he, “in every weather",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ve soldiered, you and I, together.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sentry would not let him pass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Go back,” he growled, “you tiresome ass⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go back and rest till the next war,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor kill by methods all abhor:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Miasma, famine, filth and vice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With plagues of locusts, plagues of lice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Foul food, foul water, and foul gases,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rank exhalations from morasses.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you employ such low allies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This business you will vulgarize.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Renouncing then the field of fame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wallow in a waste of shame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll prostitute my strength and lurk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the country doing work⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These hands to labor I’ll devote,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor cut, by Heaven, another throat!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}