{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/two-socialists",
 "title": "Two Socialists",
 "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": 3,
 "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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 15,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Brand Whitlock sped from Hell through space,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be remanded never⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For having such a saintly face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set free forever,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With due apology. He came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a world so base and bestial",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No tongue infernal spake its name⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No tongue celestial.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So foul it was that even He",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had cast it off Who made it:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Adrift in space, as on a sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No mooring stayed it.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That orb unclean, denied the aid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gravitation’s tether,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For centuries had blindly strayed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost altogether!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sun disdainfully declined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To light the villain planet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the whole universe combined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To curse and ban it.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Thief Impenitent, his grim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Recusance unabated,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was its sole occupant: for him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was created.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For when the wretch was newly dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas thought Hell had not ample",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Restraints to check the local spread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his example,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nor apparatus that insured",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A proper pang; though lately",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The woes that he at first endured",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had softened greatly.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But still one fierce, vain longing he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suffered, nor could o’ercome it⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The wish to sit in reverie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Calvary’s summit.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beneath that orb’s unjoyous sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brand Whitlock found the sinner.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Affinity!⁠—the outer eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lit by the inner.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Said Whitlock: “Here my stay is brief;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take, brother, ere we sever,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy pardon. Be a better thief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Henceforth forever.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“God gives me power to condone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All scalawags’ offending,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the sweet faith that I have shown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their amending.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When so he’d said with solemn grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As was that good soul’s habit,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Thief directly into space",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sprang like a rabbit!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "(He might have left at any time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had freedom been his passion,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For God had long forgot his crime.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crime was the fashion.)",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Saint, resuming soon his flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Met him through chaos floating.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Three stolen post-holes that poor wight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was gaily toting.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}