Arboriculture

Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)



You may say they won't grow, and say they'll decay-
Say it again till you're sick of the say,
Get up on your ear, blow your blaring bazoo
And hire a hall to proclaim it; and you
May stand on a stump with a lifted hand
As a pine may stand or a redwood stand,
And stick to your story and cheek it through.
But I point with pride to the far divide
Where the Snake from its groves is seen to glide
To Mariposa's arboreal suit,
And the shaggy shoulders of Shasta Butte,
And the feathered firs of Siskiyou;
And I swear as I sit on my marvelous hair
I roll my marvelous eyes and swear,
And sneer, and ask where would your forests be
To-day if it hadn't been for me!
Then I rise tip-toe, with a brow of brass,
Like a bully boy with an eye of glass;
I look at my gum sprouts, red and blue,
And I say it loud and I say it low:
'They know their man and you bet they'll grow!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
85

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCDDCEEFFCGGHHBBCII
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 852
Words 182
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. more…

All Ambrose Bierce poems | Ambrose Bierce Books

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