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").
A Rear Elevation
Once Moses (in Scripture the story is told)Entreated the favor God's face to behold.Compassion divine the petition deniedLest vision be blasted and..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Railroad Lackey
Ben Truman, you're a genius and can write,Though one would not suspect it from your looks.You lack that certain spareness which is quiteDistinctive..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Question Of Eligibility
It was a bruised and battered chapThe victim of some dire mishap,Who sat upon a rock and spentHis breath in this ungay lament: 'Some wars-I’ve..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Promised Fast Train
I turned my eyes upon the Future's scrollAnd saw its pictured prophecies unroll.I saw that magical life-laden trainFlash its long glories o'er..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Prayer [sweet Spirit Of Cesspool, Hear A Mother's Prayer]
Sweet Spirit of Cesspool, hear a mother's prayer:Her terrors pacify and offspring spare!Upon Silurians alone let fall(And God in Heaven have mercy on..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Possibility
If the wicked gods were willing(Pray it never may be true!)That a universal chillingShould ensueOf the sentiment of loving,If they made a great..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Political Violet
Come, Stanford, let us sit at easeAnd talk as old friends do.You talk of anything you please,And I will talk of you.You recently have said, I..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Political Apostate
Good friend, it is with deep regret I noteThe latest, strangest turning of your coat;Though any way you wear that mental cloutThe seamy side seems..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Poet's Hope
‘Twas a weary-looking mortal, and he wandered near the portalOf the melancholy City of the Discontented Dead.He was pale and worn exceeding and his..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Poet's Father
Welcker, I'm told, can boast a father greatAnd honored in the service of the State.Public Instruction all his mind employsHe guides its methods and..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Pickbrain
What! imitate me, friend? Suppose that youWith agony and difficulty doWhat I do easily-what then? You've gotA style I heartily wish _I_ had not.If I..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Patter Song
There was a cranky GovernorHis name it wasn't Waterman.For office he was hotter thanThe love of any lover, norWas Boruck's threat of aiding..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Partisan's Protest
O statesmen, what would you be at,With torches, flags and bands?You make me first throw up my hat,And then my hands.
© Ambrose Bierce
A Paradox
'If life were not worth having,' said the preacher,''T would have in suicide one pleasant feature.''An error,' said the pessimist, 'you're..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Nightmare
I dreamed that I was dead. The years went by:The world forgot that such a man as IHad ever lived and written: other namesWere hailed with homage, in..
© Ambrose Bierce
A 'Mute Inglorious Milton'
'O, I'm the Unaverage Man,But you never have heard of me,For my brother, the Average Man, outranMy fame with rapiditee,And I'm sunk in Oblivion's..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Morning Fancy
I drifted (or I seemed to) in a boatUpon the surface of a shoreless seaWhereon no ship nor anything did float,Save only the frail bark supporting..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Military Incident
Dawn heralded the coming sunFort Douglas was computingThe minutes-and the sunrise gunWas manned for his saluting.The gunner at that firearm stood,The..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Merciful Governor
Standing within the triple wall of Hell,And flattening his nose against a grateBehind whose brazen bars he'd had to dwellA thousand million ages to..
© Ambrose Bierce
A 'Mass' Meeting
It was a solemn rite as e’erWas seen by mortal man.The celebrants, the people there,Were all Republican. There Estee bent his grizzled head,And..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Man
Pennoyer, Governor of Oregon,Casting to South his eye across the bourneOf his dominion (where the Palmiped,With leathers 'twixt his toes, paddles his..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Long-Felt Want
Dimly apparent, through the gloomOf Market-street's opaque simoom,A queue of people, parti-sexed,Awaiting the command of 'Next!'A sidewalk booth, a..
© Ambrose Bierce
'A Literary Method'
His poems Riley says that he inditesUpon an empty stomach. Heavenly Powers,Feed him throat-full: for what the beggar writesUpon his empty stomach..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Literary Hangman
Beneath his coat of dirt great Neilson lovesTo hide the avenging rope.He handles all he touches without gloves,Excepting soap.
© Ambrose Bierce
A Lifted Finger
What! _you_ whip rascals?-_you_, whose gutter bloodBears, in its dark, dishonorable flood,Enough of prison-birds’ prolific germsTo serve a whole..
© Ambrose Bierce