Corrected News

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



'T was a maiden lady (the newspapers say)
Pious and prim and a bit gone-gray.
She slept like an angel, holy and white,
Till ten o' the clock in the shank o' the night
(When men and other wild animals prey)
And then she cried in the viewless gloom:
'There's a man in the room, a man in the room!'
And this maiden lady (they make it appear)
Leapt out of the window, five fathom sheer!

Alas, that lying is such a sin
When newspaper men need bread and gin
And none can be had for less than a lie!
For the maiden lady a bit gone-gray
Saw the man in the room from across the way,
And leapt, not out of the window but in
_Ten_ fathom sheer, as I hope to die!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
130

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBACCDD EEFAAEF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 644
Words 137
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 9, 7

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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    "Corrected News" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/1749/corrected-news>.

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