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 Lacking Factor
'You acted unwisely,' I cried, 'as you seeBy the outcome.' He calmly eyed me:'When choosing the course of my action,' said he,'I had not the outcome..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Jack-At-All-Views
So, Estee, you are still alive! I thoughtThat you had died and were a blessed ghostI know at least your coffin once was boughtWith Railroad money;..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Hymn Of The Many
God’s people sorely were oppressed,I heard their lamentations long;I hear their singing, clear and strong,I see their banners in the West! The..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Hasty Inference
The Devil one day, coming up from the Pit,All grimy with perspiration,Applied to St. Peter and begged he'd admitHim a moment for consultation.The..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Guest
Death, are you well? I trust you have no coughThat's painful or in any way annoyingNo kidney trouble that may carry you off,Or heart disease to keep..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Growler
Judge Shafter, you're an aged man, I know,And learned too, I doubt not, in the law;And a head white with many a winter's snow(I wish, however that..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Fool
Says Anderson, Theosophist:'Among the many that existIn modern halls,Some lived in ancient Egypt's climeAnd in their childhood saw the primeOf..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Fish Commissioner
Great Joseph D. Redding-illustrious name!Considered a fish-horn the trumpet of Fame.That goddess was angry, and what do you think?Her trumpet she..
© Ambrose Bierce
A False Prophecy
Dom Pedro, Emperor of far Brazil(Whence coffee comes and the three-cornered nut),They say that you're imperially ill,And threatened with paralysis...
© Ambrose Bierce
A Fair Division
Another Irish landlord gone to grass,Slain by the bullets of the tenant class!Pray, good agrarians, what wrong requiresSuch foul redress? Between you..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Dilemma
Filled with a zeal to serve my fellow men,For years I criticised their prose and verges:Pointed out all their blunders of the pen,Their shallowness..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Demand
You promised to paint me a picture,Dear Mat,And I was to pay you in rhyme.Although I am loth to inflict yourMost easy of consciences, I'mOf opinion..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Demagogue
Yawp, yawp, yawp!Under the moon and sun.It's aye the rabble,And I to gabble,And hey! for the tale that is never done.'Chant, chant, chant!To woo the..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Demagogue
Yawp, yawp, yawp!Under the moon and sun.It's aye the rabble,And I to gabble,And hey! for the tale that is never done.'Chant, chant, chant!To woo the..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Dampened Ardor
The Chinatown at BakersfieldWas blazing bright and high;The flames to water would not yield,Though torrents drenched the skyAnd drowned the ground..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Culinary Candidate
A cook adorned with paper cap,Or waiter with a tray,May be a worthy kind of chapIn his way,But when we want one for Recorder,Then, Mr. Walton, take..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Crocodile
Nay, Peter Robertson, 'tis not for youTo blubber o'er Max Taubles for he's dead.By Heaven! my hearty, if you only knewHow better is a grave-worm in..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Critic
That from _you_, neighbor! to whose vacant lotEach rhyming literary knacker scourgesHis cart-compelling Pegasus to trot,As folly, fame or famine..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Coward
By hardihood to rise and fear to strike,And fitly to rebuke his sins decrees,That, hide from others with what care he please,Night sha'n't be black..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Controversialist
I've sometimes wished that Ingersoll were wiseTo hold his tongue, nor rail against the skies;For when he's made a point some pious dunceLike Bartlett..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Commuted Sentence
Boruck and Waterman upon their grillsIn Hades lay, with many a sigh and groan,Hotly disputing, for each swore his ownWere clearly keener than the..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Cheating Preacher
Munhall, to save my soul you bravely try,Although, to save my soul, I can't say why.'Tis naught to you, to me however muchWhy, bless it! you might..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Challenge
A bull imprisoned in a stallBroke boldly the confining wall,And found himself, when out of bounds,Within a washerwoman's grounds.Where, hanging on a..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Celebrated Case
Way down in the Boom Belt lived Mrs. Roselle;A person named Petrie, he lived there as well;But Mr. Roselle he resided awaySing tooral iooral iooral..
© Ambrose Bierce
A Career In Letters
When Liberverm resigned the chairOf This or That in college, whereFor two decades he'd gorged his brainWith more than it could well contain,In order..
© Ambrose Bierce