Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Ambrose Bierce > Text of By False Pretenses
|
|
________________________________________________
Title: By False Pretenses
Author: Ambrose Bierce [ More Titles by Bierce]
John S. Hittell, whose sovereign genius wields The quill his tributary body yields; The author of an opera--that is, All but the music and libretto's his: A work renowned, whose formidable name, Linked with his own, repels the assault of fame From the high vantage of a dusty shelf, Secure from all the world except himself;-- Who told the tale of "Culture" in a screed That all might understand if some would read;-- Master of poesy and lord of prose, Dowered, like a setter, with a double nose; That one for Erato, for Clio this; He flushes both--not his fault if we miss;-- Judge of the painter's art, who'll straight proclaim The hue of any color you can name, And knows a painting with a canvas back Distinguished from a duck by the duck's quack;-- This thinker and philosopher, whose work Is famous from Commercial street to Turk, Has got a fortune now, his talent's meed. A woman left it him who could not read, And so went down to death's eternal night Sweetly unconscious that the wretch could write.
[The end] Ambrose Bierce's poem: By False Pretenses ________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
|