Social Commentaries

Visions of Sin

by Ambrose Bierce 1842–c. 1914

From Shapes of Clay (1903)

Social Commentaries

From the regions of the Night,
Coming with recovered sight--
From the spell of darkness free,
What will Danenhower see?

He will see when he arrives,
Doctors taking human lives.
He will see a learned judge
Whose decision will not budge
Till both litigants are fleeced
And his palm is duly greased.
Lawyers he will see who fight
Day by day and night by night;
Never both upon a side,
Though their fees they still divide.
Preachers he will see who teach
That it is divine to preach--
That they fan a sacred fire
And are worthy of their hire.
He will see a trusted wife

(Pride of some good husband's life)
Enter at a certain door
And--but he will see no more.
He will see Good Templars reel--
See a prosecutor steal,
And a father beat his child.
He'll perhaps see Oscar Wilde.

From the regions of the Night
Coming with recovered sight--
From the bliss of blindness free,
That's what Danenhower'll see.

✦ ✦ ✦

1882

MLA

Bierce, Ambrose. “Visions of Sin.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/189/.

Chicago

Bierce, Ambrose. “Visions of Sin.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/189/.

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