Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

Thanksgiving

_The Superintendent of an Almshouse. A Pauper._SUPERINTENDENT:So _you're_ unthankful-you'll not eat the bird?You sit about the place all day and..

© Ambrose Bierce

Tempora Mutantur

'The world is dull,' I cried in my despair:'Its myths and fables are no longer fair.'Roll back thy centuries, O Father Time.To Greece transport me in..

© Ambrose Bierce

Technology

'Twas a serious person with locks of grayAnd a figure like a crescent;His gravity, clearly, had come to stay,But his smile was evanescent.He stood..

© Ambrose Bierce

T.A.H.

YES, he was that, or that, as you prefer,—Did so and so, though, faith, it was n’t all;Lived like a fool, or a philosopher,And had whatever’s needful..

© Ambrose Bierce

Surprised

'O son of mine age, these eyes lose their fire:Be eyes, I pray, to thy dying sire.''O father, fear not, for mine eyes are brightI read through a..

© Ambrose Bierce

Subterranean Phantasies

I died. As meekly in the earth I lay,With shriveled fingers reverently folded,The worm-uncivil engineer!-my clayTunneled industriously, and the mole..

© Ambrose Bierce

Substance Versus Shadow

So, gentle critics, you would have me tilt,Not at the guilty, only just at Guilt!Spare the offender and condemn Offense,And make life miserable to..

© Ambrose Bierce

Strained Relations

Says England to Germany: 'Africa's ours.'Says Germany: 'Ours, I opine.'Says Africa: 'Tell me, delectable Pow'rs,What is it that ought to be mine?'

© Ambrose Bierce

Stoneman In Heaven

The Seraphs came to Christ, and said: 'Behold!The man, presumptuous and overbold,Who boasted that his mercy could excelThine own, is dead and on his..

© Ambrose Bierce

Stephen J. Field

Here sleeps one of the greatest studentsOf jurisprudence.Nature endowed him with the giftOf the juristhrift.All points of law alike he threwThe dice..

© Ambrose Bierce

Stephen Dorsey

Fly, heedless stranger, from this spot accurst,Where rests in Satan an offender firstIn point of greatness, as in point of time,Of new-school rascals..

© Ambrose Bierce

Something In The Papers

'What's in the paper?' Oh, it's dev'lish dull:There's nothing happening at all-a lullAfter the war-storm. Mr. Someone's wifeKilled by her lover with..

© Ambrose Bierce

Slickens

DRAMATIS PERSONAE. HAYSEED _a Granger_NOZZLE _a Miner_RINGDIVVY _a Statesman_FEEGOBBLE _a Lawyer_JUNKET _a Committee_ _Scene_-Yuba Dam. _Feegobble..

© Ambrose Bierce

Slander

FITCH:'All vices you've exhausted, friend;So all the papers say.'PICKERING:'Ah, what vile calumnies are penned!-'Tis just the other way.'

© Ambrose Bierce

Sires And Sons

Wild wanton Luxury lays waste the landWith difficulty tilled by Thrift's hard hand!Then dies the State!-and, in its carcass found,The millionaires..

© Ambrose Bierce

Samuel Shortridge

Like a worn mother he attempts in vainTo still the unruly Crier of his brain:The more he rocks the cradle of his chinThe more uproarious grows the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Salvini In America

Come, gentlemen-your gold.Thanks: welcome to the show.To hear a story toldIn words you do not know.Now, great Salvini, riseAnd thunder through your..

© Ambrose Bierce

Safety-Clutch

Once I seen a human ruinIn a elevator-well.And his members was bestrewin'All the place where he had fell.And I says, apostrophisin'That uncommon..

© Ambrose Bierce

Rimer

The rimer quenches his unheeded fires,The sound surceases and the sense expires.Then the domestic dog, to east and west,Expounds the passions burning..

© Ambrose Bierce

Revenge

A spitcat sate on a garden gateAnd a snapdog fared beneath;Careless and free was his mien, and heHeld a fiddle-string in his teeth.She marked his..

© Ambrose Bierce

Reminded

Beneath my window twilight madeFamiliar mysteries of shade.Faint voices from the darkening downWere calling vaguely to the town.Intent upon a low..

© Ambrose Bierce

Religious Progress

Professor dear, I think it queerThat all these good religions('Twixt you and me, some two or threeAre schemes for plucking pigeons)I mean 'tis..

© Ambrose Bierce

Religion

Hassan Bedreddin, clad in rags, ill-shod,Sought the great temple of the living God.The worshippers arose and drove him forth,And one in power beat..

© Ambrose Bierce

Rejected

When Dr. Charles O'Donnell diedThey sank a box with him inside.The plate with his initials threeWas simply graven-'C.O.D.'That night two demons of..

© Ambrose Bierce

Re-Edified

Lord of the tempest, pray refrainFrom leveling this church again.Now in its doom, as so you've willed it,We acquiesce. But _you'll_ rebuild it.

© Ambrose Bierce