Cain
775 Words
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Cain
Lord, shed thy light upon his desert path,
And gild his branded brow, that no man spill
His forfeit life to balk thy holy will
That spares him for the ripening of wrath.
Already, lo! the red sign is descried,
To trembling jurors visibly revealed:
The prison doors obediently yield,
The baffled hangman flings the cord aside.
Powell, the brother's blood that marks your trail--
Hark, how it cries against you from the ground,
Like the far baying of the tireless hound.
Faith! to your ear it is no nightingale.
What signifies the date upon a stone?
To-morrow you shall die if not to-day.
What matter when the Avenger choose to slay
Or soon or late the Devil gets his own.
Thenceforth through all eternity you'll hold
No one advantage of the later death.
Though you had granted Ralph another breath
Would he to-day less silent lie and cold?
Earth cares not, curst assassin, when you die;
You never will be readier than now.
Wear, in God's name, that mark upon your brow,
And keep the life you purchased with a lie!
About Ambrose Bierce
Text
Summary
Introduction
The Key Note
Cain
An Obituarian
A Commuted Sentence
A Lifted Finger
Two Statesmen
Matter for Gratitude
Three Kinds of a Rogue
A Man
Y'e For to Cathaye
Samuel Shortridge
Surprised
Posterity's Award
An Art Critic
The Spirit of a Sponge
Ornithanthropos
To E.S. Solomon
Dennis Kearney
Finis *************** Veteran
An 'Exhibit'
The Transmigrations of a Soul
An Actor
Famine's Realm
The Mackaiad
A Song in Praise
A Poet's Father
A Coward
To My Liars
'Phil' Crimmins
Codex Honoris
To W.H.L.B.
Emancipation
Johndonkey
Hell
By False Pretenses
Lucifer of the Torch
The 'Whirligig of Time'
A Railroad Lackey
The Legatee
'Died of a Rose'
A Literary Hangman
At the Eleventh Hour
A Controversialist
Mendax
The Retrospective Bird
The Oakland Dog
The Unfallen Brave
A Celebrated Case
Couplets
A Retort
A Vision of Resurrection
Master of Three Arts
Thersites
A Society Leader
Expositor Veritatis
To 'Colonel' Dan. Burns
George A. Knight
Unarmed
A Political Violet
The Subdued Editor
Black Bart, Po8
A 'Scion of Nobility'
The Night of Election
The Convict's Ball
A Prayer
To One Detested
The Boss's Choice
A Merciful Governor
An Interpretation
A Soaring Toad
An Undress Uniform
The Perverted Village
Mr. Sheets
A Jack-at-all-Views
My Lord Poet
To the Fool-Killer
One and One are Two
Montague Leverson
The Woeful Tale of Mr. Peters
Twin Unworthies
Another Plan
A Political Apostate
Tinker Dick
Bats in Sunshine
A Word to the Universe
On the Platform
A Dampened Ardor
Adair Welcker, Poet
To a Word-Warrior
A Culinary Candidate
The Oleomargarine Man
Genesis
Llewellen Powell
The Sunset Gun
The 'Viduate Dame'
Four of a Kind
Reconcilliation
A Vision of Climate
A 'Mass' Meeting
For President, Leland Stanford
For Mayor
A Cheating Preacher
A Crocodile
The American Party
Uncoloneled
The Gates Ajar
Tidings of Good
Arboriculture
A Silurian Holiday
Rejected
Judex Judicatus
On the Wedding of an A********* Hasty Inference
A Voluptuary
Ad Cattonum
The National Guardsman
The Barking Weasel
A Rear Elevation
In Upper San Francisco
Nimrod
Censor Literarum
Borrowed Brains
The Fyghtynge Seventh
Indicted
Over the Border
One Judge
To an Insolent Attorney
Accepted
A Promised Fast Train
One of the Saints
A Military Incident
Substance versus Shadow
The Committee on Public Morals
California
De Young: A Prophecy
To Either
Disappointment
The Valley of the Shadow of Theft
Down Among the Dead Men
The Last Man
Arbor Day
The Piute
Fame
One of the Redeemed
A Critic
A Question of Eligibility
Fleet Strother
The Foot-Hill Resort
At Anchor
The In-Coming Climate
A Long-Felt Want
To the Happy Hunting Grounds
Slander
James L. Flood
Four Candidates for Senator
A Growler
Ad Moodium
An Epitaph
A Spade
The Van Nessiad
A Fish Commissioner
To a Stray Dog
In His Hand
A Demagogue
Ignis Fatuus
From Top to Bottom
An Idler
The Dead King
A Patter Song
A Caller
The Shafter Shafted
The Two Cavees
Metempsychosis
Slickens
'Peaceable Expulsion'
Aspirants Three
The Birth of the Rail
A Bad Night
On Stone
A Wreath of Immortelles
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