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").

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

Dies Irae

Dies irae! dies ilia!Solvet saeclum in favillaTeste David cum Sibylla.Quantus tremor est futurus,Quando Judex est venturus.Cuncta stricte..

© Ambrose Bierce

'Died Of A Rose'

A reporter he was, and he wrote, wrote he:'The grave was covered as thick as could beWith floral tributes'-which reading,The editor man he said, he..

© Ambrose Bierce

Diagnosis

Cried Allen Forman: 'Doctor, prayCompose my spirits' strife:O what may be my chances, say,Of living all my life?'For lately I have dreamed of highAnd..

© Ambrose Bierce

Detected

In Congress once great Mowther shone,Debating weighty matters;Now into an asylum thrown,He vacuously chatters.If in that legislative hallHis wisdom..

© Ambrose Bierce