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").
The Birth Of Virtue
When, long ago, the young world circling flewThrough wider reaches of a richer blue,New-eyed, the men and maids saw, manifest,The thoughts untold in..
© Ambrose Bierce
The Birth Of The Rail
DRAMATIS PERSONAE LELAND, THE KID _a Road Agent_COWBOY CHARLEY _Same Line of Business_HAPPY HUNTY _Ditto in All Respects_SOOTYMUG _a..
© Ambrose Bierce
The Barking Weasel
You say, John Irish, Mr. Taylor hathA painted beard. Quite likely that is true,And sure 'tis natural you spend your wrathOn what has been least..
© Ambrose Bierce
The American Party
Oh, Marcus D. Boruck, me hearty,I sympathize wid ye, poor lad!A man that's shot out of his partyIs mighty onlucky, bedad!An' the sowl o' that man is..
© Ambrose Bierce
The Aesthetes
The lily cranks, the lily cranks,The loppy, loony lasses!They multiply in rising ranksTo execute their solemn pranks,They moon along in masses.Blow..
© Ambrose Bierce
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