Social Commentaries
Haec Farula Docet
From Shapes of Clay (1903)
A rat who'd gorged a box of bane
And suffered an internal pain,
Came from his hole to die (the label
Required it if the rat were able)
And found outside his habitat
A limpid stream. Of bane and rat
'T was all unconscious; in the sun
It ran and prattled just for fun.
Keen to allay his inward throes,
The beast immersed his filthy nose
And drank--then, bloated by the stream,
And filled with superheated steam,
Exploded with a rascal smell,
Remarking, as his fragments fell
Astonished in the brook: "I'm thinking
This water's damned unwholesome drinking!"
Cite this poem
MLA
Bierce, Ambrose. “Haec Farula Docet.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/410/.
Chicago
Bierce, Ambrose. “Haec Farula Docet.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bierce/410/.
Read this poem with the Codex →