{
 "id": "ring-lardner/guess-again",
 "title": "Guess Again",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ring Lardner",
 "poet_slug": "ring-lardner",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Bib Ballads",
 "book_slug": "bib-ballads",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 24,
 "container": "Bib Ballads",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1915,
  "venue": "Bib Ballads (1915)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924021755669",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25961"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://archive.org/details/per_chicago-daily-tribune_1913-06-03_72_132",
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   "https://archive.org/details/sim_cosmopolitan_cosmopolitan_1922-12_73_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/boston-evening-globe-1924-02-23-1",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_the-new-yorker_1925-04-18_1_9",
   "https://archive.org/details/the-atlanta-journal-1929-01-16-1"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“I guess I’ll help you, daddy.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And daddy can’t say “No;”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For if he did, ’twould wound you, kid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cause the tears to flow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I guess I’ll help you, daddy.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And daddy says: “All right,”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And tries to do, ignoring you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whatever work’s in sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But what’s the use of trying?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As well be reconciled",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To quit and play the game that may",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be pleasing to you, child.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To quit and play, or roughhouse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or read, as you elect;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For I’m afraid the guess you made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was wholly incorrect.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}