{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/silas-dement",
 "title": "Silas Dement",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Lee Masters",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-lee-masters",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spoon River Anthology",
 "book_slug": "spoon-river-anthology",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 167,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Spoon River Anthology (1916)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-lee-masters_spoon-river-anthology",
  "file": "spoon-river-anthology.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://web.archive.org/web/20080723131115/http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/originalOrder/",
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "It was moonlight, and the earth sparkled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With new-fallen frost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was midnight and not a soul abroad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the chimney of the courthouse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A gray-hound of smoke leapt and chased",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The northwest wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I carried a ladder to the landing of the stairs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leaned it against the frame of the trap-door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the ceiling of the portico,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I crawled under the roof and amid the rafters",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flung among the seasoned timbers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lighted handful of oil-soaked waste.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then I came down and slunk away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a little while the fire-bell rang⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clang! Clang! Clang!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Spoon River ladder company",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came with a dozen buckets and began to pour water",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the glorious bon-fire, growing hotter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Higher and brighter, till the walls fell in,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the limestone columns where Lincoln stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crashed like trees when the woodman fells them⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I came back from Joliet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was a new court house with a dome.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I was punished like all who destroy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The past for the sake of the future.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}