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").

Foundations Of The State

Observe, dear Lord, what lively pranksAre played by sentimental cranks!First this one mounts his hinder hoofsAnd brays the chimneys off the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Foresight

An 'actors' cemetery'! SureThe devil never tiresOf planning places to procureThe sticks to feed his fires.

© Ambrose Bierce

For Wounds

O bear me, gods, to some enchanted isleWhere woman's tears can antidote her smile.

© Ambrose Bierce

For Tat

O, heavenly powers! will wonders never cease?Hair upon dogs and feathers upon geese!The boys in mischief and the pigs in mire!The drinking water wet!..

© Ambrose Bierce

For President, Leland Stanford

Mahomet Stanford, with covetous stare,Gazed on a vision surpassingly fair:Far on the desert's remote extremeA mountain of gold with a mellow..

© Ambrose Bierce

For Merit

To Parmentier Parisians raiseA statue fine and large:He cooked potatoes fifty ways,Nor ever led a charge.'_Palmam qui meruit'_-the restYou knew as..

© Ambrose Bierce

For Mayor

O Abner Doble-whose 'catarrhal name'Budd of that ilk might envy-'tis a roughRude thing to say, but it is plain enoughYour name is to be sneezed at:..

© Ambrose Bierce

For A Certain Critic

Let lowly themes engage my humble penStupidities of critics, not of men.Be it mine once more the maunderings to traceOf the expounders' self-directed..

© Ambrose Bierce

Fleet Strother

What! you were born, you animated doll,Within the shadow of the Capitol?'Twas always thought (and Bancroft so assuresHis trusting readers) it was..

© Ambrose Bierce

Finis Aeternitatis

Strolling at sunset in my native land,With fruits and flowers thick on either hand,I crossed a Shadow flung athwart my way,Emerging on a waste of..

© Ambrose Bierce

Fate

Alas, alas, for the tourist's guide!He turned from the beaten trail aside,Wandered bewildered, lay down and died.O grim is the Irony of Fate:It..

© Ambrose Bierce

Famine's Realm

To him in whom the love of Nature hasImperfectly supplanted the desireAnd dread necessity of food, your shore,Fair Oakland, is a terror. Over allYour..

© Ambrose Bierce

Fame [one Thousand Years I Slept Beneath The Sod]

One thousand years I slept beneath the sod,My sleep in 1901 beginning,Then, by the action of some scurvy godWho happened then to recollect my..

© Ambrose Bierce

Fame [he Held A Book In His Knotty Paws]

He held a book in his knotty paws,And its title grand read he:'The Chronicles of the Kings' it was,By the History Companee.'I'm a monarch,' he..

© Ambrose Bierce

Fallen

O, hadst thou died when thou wert great,When at thy feet a nation kneltTo sob the gratitude it feltAnd thank the Saviour of the State,Gods might have..

© Ambrose Bierce

Expositor Veritatis

I Slept, and, waking in the years to be,Heard voices, and approaching whence they came,Listened indifferently where a keyHad lately been removed. An..

© Ambrose Bierce

Exoneration

When men at candidacy don't connive,From that suspicion if their friends would free 'em,The teeth and nails with which they did not striveShould be..

© Ambrose Bierce

Emancipation

Behold! the days of miracle at lastReturn-if ever they were truly past:From sinful creditors' unholy greedThe church called Calvary at last is..

© Ambrose Bierce

Elixer Vitæ

Of life's elixir I had writ, when sleep(Pray Heaven it spared him who the writing read!)Settled upon my senses with so deepA stupefaction that men..

© Ambrose Bierce

Elegy

The cur foretells the knell of parting day;The loafing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;The wise man homewards plods; I only stayTo fiddle-faddle in a..

© Ambrose Bierce

Election Day

Despots effete upon tottering thronesUnsteadily poised upon dead men's bones,Walk up! walk up! the circus is free,And this wonderful spectacle you..

© Ambrose Bierce

Egotist

Megaceph, chosen to serve the StateIn the halls of legislative debate,One day with his credentials cameTo the capitol's door and announced his..

© Ambrose Bierce

Down Among The Dead Men

Within my dark and narrow bedI rested well, new-laid:I heard above my fleshless headThe grinding of a spade.A gruffer note ensued and grewTo harsh..

© Ambrose Bierce

Discretion

SHE:I'm told that men have sometimes gotToo confidential, andHave said to one another whatThey-well, you understand.I hope I don't offend you..

© Ambrose Bierce

Disappointment

The Senate woke; the Chairman's snoreWas stilled, its echoes balking;The startled members dreamed no more,For Steele, who long had held the floor,Had..

© Ambrose Bierce