Social Commentaries

Consolation

by Ambrose Bierce 1842–c. 1914

From Shapes of Clay (1903)

Social Commentaries

Little's the good to sit and grieve
Because the serpent tempted Eve.
Better to wipe your eyes and take
A club and go out and kill a snake.

What do you gain by cursing Nick
For playing her such a scurvy trick?
Better go out and some villain find
Who serves the devil, and beat him blind.

But if you prefer, as I suspect,
To philosophize, why, then, reflect:
If the cunning rascal upon the limb
Hadn't tempted her she'd have tempted him.

MLA

Bierce, Ambrose. “Consolation.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/254/.

Chicago

Bierce, Ambrose. “Consolation.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/254/.

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