The Poetry of Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce is remembered mostly for his fiction and his acid definitions, but he also wrote a great deal of verse, and this volume gathers it together. Most of the poems are satirical, aimed squarely at the politicians, editors, and self-important men of his California. Bierce collected much of this work under titles like Black Beetles in Amber, and the tone matches: sharp epigrams, savage lampoons, and rhymed insults delivered with obvious relish. Alongside the invective sit darker pieces on death, folly, and the pretenses people live by, plus a scattering of fables in verse. Readers who know his prose will recognize the same unforgiving eye and the same refusal to flatter anyone. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects the verse in one place.