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").

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

Bats In Sunshine

Well, Mr. Kemble, you are called, I think,A great divine, and I'm a great profane.You as a Congregationalist blinkSome certain truths that I esteem a..

© Ambrose Bierce

Azrael

The moon in the field of the keel-plowed mainWas watching the growing tide:A luminous peasant was driving his wain,And he offered my soul a ride.But..

© Ambrose Bierce

Authority

'Authority, authority!' they shoutWhose minds, not large enough to hold a doubt,Some chance opinion ever entertain,By dogma billeted upon their..

© Ambrose Bierce

At The 'National Encampment'

You 're grayer than one would have thought you:The climate you have over thereIn the East has apparently brought youDisorders affecting the..

© Ambrose Bierce

At The Eleventh Hour

As through the blue expanse he skimsOn joyous wings, the lateFrank Hutchings overtakes Miss Sims,Both bound for Heaven's high gate.In life they loved..

© Ambrose Bierce

At The Close Of The Canvass

'Twas a Venerable Person, whom I met one Sunday morning,All appareled as a prophet of a melancholy sect;And in a Jeremiad of objurgatory warningHe..

© Ambrose Bierce

At Anchor

The soft asphaltum in the sun;Betrays a tendency to run;Whereas the dog that takes his wayAcross its course concludes to stay.

© Ambrose Bierce

Aspiration

Lo! the wild rabbit, happy in the prideOf qualities to meaner beasts denied,Surveys the ass with reverence and fear,Adoring his superior length of..

© Ambrose Bierce

Aspirants Three

DRAMATIS PERSONAE._QUICK_:DE YOUNG _a Brother to Mushrooms__DEAD_:SWIFT _an Heirloom_ESTEE _a Relic__IMMORTALS_:THE SPIRIT OF BROKEN HOPES. THE..

© Ambrose Bierce

Arthur Mcewen

Posterity with all its eyesWill come and view him where he lies.Then, turning from the scene awayWith a concerted shrug, will say:'H'm, Scarabaeus..

© Ambrose Bierce

Art

For Gladstone's portrait five thousand poundsWere paid, 't is said, to Sir John Millais.I cannot help thinking that such fine payTranscended reason's..

© Ambrose Bierce

Arma Virumque

'Ours is a Christian Army'; so he saidA regiment of bangomen who led.'And ours a Christian Navy,' added heWho sailed a thunder-junk upon the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Arboriculture

You may say they won't grow, and say they'll decaySay it again till you're sick of the say,Get up on your ear, blow your blaring bazooAnd hire a hall..

© Ambrose Bierce

Arbor Day

Hasten, children, black and whiteCelebrate the yearly rite.Every pupil plant a tree:It will grow some day to beBig and strong enough to bearA School..

© Ambrose Bierce

Another Way

I lay in silence, dead. A woman cameAnd laid a rose upon my breast, and said,'May God be merciful.' She spoke my name,And added, 'It is strange to..

© Ambrose Bierce

Another Plan

Editor Owen, of San Jose,Commonly known as 'our friend J.J.'Weary of scribbling for daily bread,Weary of writing what nobody read,Slept one day at..

© Ambrose Bierce

An Unmerry Christmas

Christmas, you tell me, comes but once a year.One place it never comes, and that is here.Here, in these pages no good wishes spring,No well-worn..

© Ambrose Bierce

An Undress Uniform

The apparel does _not_ proclaim the manPolonius lied like a partisan,And Salomon still would a hero seemIf (Heaven dispel the impossible dream!)He..

© Ambrose Bierce

An Offer Of Marriage

Once I 'dipt into the future far as human eye could see,'And saw-it was not Sandow, nor John Sullivan, but sheThe Emancipated Woman, who was weeping..

© Ambrose Bierce

An Obituarian

Death-poet Pickering sat at his desk,Wrapped in appropriate gloom;His posture was pensive and picturesque,Like a raven charming a tomb.Enter a party..

© Ambrose Bierce