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").

Couplets

I am for Cutting. I'm a bladeDesigned for use at dress parade.My gleaming length, when I displayPeace rules the land with gentle sway;But when the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Corrected News

'T was a maiden lady (the newspapers say)Pious and prim and a bit gone-gray.She slept like an angel, holy and white,Till ten o' the clock in the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Cooperation

No more the swindler singly seeks his prey;To hunt in couples is the modern wayA rascal, from the public to purloin,An honest man to hide away the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Convalescent [what! 'Out Of Danger?' Can The Slighted Dame]

What! 'Out of danger?' Can the slighted DameOr canting Pharisee no more defame?Will Treachery caress my hand no more,Nor Hatred He alurk about my..

© Ambrose Bierce

Convalescent ['By Good Men's Prayers See Grant Restored!']

'By good men's prayers see Grant restored!'Shouts Talmage, pious creature!Yes, God, by supplication boredFrom every droning preacher,Exclaimed: 'So..

© Ambrose Bierce

Convalescent

What! 'Out of danger?' Can the slighted DameOr canting Pharisee no more defame?Will Treachery caress my hand no more,Nor Hatred lie alurk about my..

© Ambrose Bierce

Contentment

Sleep fell upon my senses and I dreamedLong years had circled since my life had fled.The world was different, and all things seemedRemote and..

© Ambrose Bierce

Contemplation

I muse upon the distant townIn many a dreamy mood.Above my head the sunbeams crownThe graveyard's giant rood.The lupin blooms among the tombs.The..

© Ambrose Bierce

Constancy

Dull were the days and sober,The mountains were brown and bare,For the season was sad OctoberAnd a dirge was in the air.The mated starlings flew..

© Ambrose Bierce

Consolation

Little's the good to sit and grieveBecause the serpent tempted Eve.Better to wipe your eyes and takeA club and go out and kill a snake.What do you..

© Ambrose Bierce

Codex Honoris

Jacob Jacobs, of Oakland, he swore:'Dat Solomon Martin-I'll haf his gore!'Solomon Martin, of Oakland, he said:'Of Shacob Shacobs der bleed I vill..

© Ambrose Bierce

Christian

I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo!The godly multitudes walked to and froBeneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad,With pious mien, appropriately..

© Ambrose Bierce

Charles And Peter

Ere Gabriel's note to silence diedAll graves of men were gaping wide.Then Charles A. Dana, of 'The Sun,'Rose slowly from the deepest one.'The dead in..

© Ambrose Bierce

Censor Literarum

So, Parson Stebbins, you've released your chinTo say that here, and here, we press-folk ail.'Tis a great thing an editor to skinAnd hang his faulty..

© Ambrose Bierce

Carmelite

As Death was a-riding out one day,Across Mount Carmel he took his way,Where he met a mendicant monk,Some three or four quarters drunk,With a holy..

© Ambrose Bierce

California

Why should he not have been allowedTo thread with peaceful feet the crowdWhich filled that Christian street?The Decalogue he had observed,From Faith..

© Ambrose Bierce

Cain

Lord, shed thy light upon his desert path,And gild his branded brow, that no man spillHis forfeit life to balk thy holy willThat spares him for the..

© Ambrose Bierce

By False Pretenses

John S. Hittell, whose sovereign genius wieldsThe quill his tributary body yields;The author of an opera-that is,All but the music and libretto's..

© Ambrose Bierce

By A Defeated Litigant

Liars for witnesses; for lawyers brutesWho lose their tempers to retrieve their suits;Cowards for jurors; and for judge a clownWho ne'er took up the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Business

Two villains of the highest rankSet out one night to rob a bank.They found the building, looked it o'er,Each window noted, tried each door,Scanned..

© Ambrose Bierce

Borrowed Brains

Writer folk across the bayTake the pains to see and sayAll their upward palms in air:'Joaquin Miller's cut his hair!'Hasten, hasten, writer folkIn..

© Ambrose Bierce

'Black Bart, Po8'

Welcome, good friend; as you have served your term,And found the joy of crime to be a fiction,I hope you'll hold your present faith, stand firmAnd..

© Ambrose Bierce

Bimetalism

Ben Bulger was a silver man,Though not a mine had he:He thought it were a noble planTo make the coinage free.'There hain't for years been sech a..

© Ambrose Bierce

Bereavement

A Countess (so they tell the tale)Who dwelt of old in Arno's vale,Where ladies, even of high degree,Know more of love than of A.B.C,Came once with a..

© Ambrose Bierce

Beecher

So, Beecher's dead. His was a great soul, tooGreat as a giant organ is, whose reedsHold in them all the souls of all the creedsThat man has ever..

© Ambrose Bierce