{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/vice-versa",
 "title": "Vice Versa",
 "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": 103,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Down in the state of Maine, the story goes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woman, to secure a lapsing pension,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Married a soldier⁠—though the good Lord knows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That very common act scarce takes attention.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What makes it worthy to be writ and read⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man she married had been nine hours dead!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, marrying a corpse is not an act",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Familiar to our daily observation,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And so I crave her pardon if the fact",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suggests this interesting speculation:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should some mischance restore the man to life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would she be then a widow, or a wife?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let casuists contest the point; I’m not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disposed to grapple with so great a matter.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twould tie my thinker in a double knot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drive me staring mad as any hatter⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I submit that hatters are, in fact,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sane, and all other human beings cracked.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Small thought have I of Destiny or Chance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Luck seems to me the same thing as Intention;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In metaphysics I could ne’er advance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And think it of the Devil’s own invention.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Enough of joy to know: Though when I wed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must be married, yet I may be dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}