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").

Convalescent

What! 'Out of danger?' Can the slighted DameOr canting Pharisee no more defame?Will Treachery caress my hand no more,Nor Hatred lie alurk about my..

© Ambrose Bierce

Contentment

Sleep fell upon my senses and I dreamedLong years had circled since my life had fled.The world was different, and all things seemedRemote and..

© Ambrose Bierce

Contemplation

I muse upon the distant townIn many a dreamy mood.Above my head the sunbeams crownThe graveyard's giant rood.The lupin blooms among the tombs.The..

© Ambrose Bierce

Constancy

Dull were the days and sober,The mountains were brown and bare,For the season was sad OctoberAnd a dirge was in the air.The mated starlings flew..

© Ambrose Bierce

Consolation

Little's the good to sit and grieveBecause the serpent tempted Eve.Better to wipe your eyes and takeA club and go out and kill a snake.What do you..

© Ambrose Bierce

Codex Honoris

Jacob Jacobs, of Oakland, he swore:'Dat Solomon Martin-I'll haf his gore!'Solomon Martin, of Oakland, he said:'Of Shacob Shacobs der bleed I vill..

© Ambrose Bierce

Christian

I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo!The godly multitudes walked to and froBeneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad,With pious mien, appropriately..

© Ambrose Bierce

Charles And Peter

Ere Gabriel's note to silence diedAll graves of men were gaping wide.Then Charles A. Dana, of 'The Sun,'Rose slowly from the deepest one.'The dead in..

© Ambrose Bierce

Censor Literarum

So, Parson Stebbins, you've released your chinTo say that here, and here, we press-folk ail.'Tis a great thing an editor to skinAnd hang his faulty..

© Ambrose Bierce

Carmelite

As Death was a-riding out one day,Across Mount Carmel he took his way,Where he met a mendicant monk,Some three or four quarters drunk,With a holy..

© Ambrose Bierce

California

Why should he not have been allowedTo thread with peaceful feet the crowdWhich filled that Christian street?The Decalogue he had observed,From Faith..

© Ambrose Bierce

Cain

Lord, shed thy light upon his desert path,And gild his branded brow, that no man spillHis forfeit life to balk thy holy willThat spares him for the..

© Ambrose Bierce

By False Pretenses

John S. Hittell, whose sovereign genius wieldsThe quill his tributary body yields;The author of an opera-that is,All but the music and libretto's..

© Ambrose Bierce

By A Defeated Litigant

Liars for witnesses; for lawyers brutesWho lose their tempers to retrieve their suits;Cowards for jurors; and for judge a clownWho ne'er took up the..

© Ambrose Bierce

Business

Two villains of the highest rankSet out one night to rob a bank.They found the building, looked it o'er,Each window noted, tried each door,Scanned..

© Ambrose Bierce

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