Home
Fictions/Novels
Short Stories
Poems
Essays
Plays
Nonfictions
 
Authors
All Titles
 






In Association with Amazon.com

Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Ambrose Bierce > Text of To The Bartholdi Statue

A poem by Ambrose Bierce

To The Bartholdi Statue

________________________________________________
Title:     To The Bartholdi Statue
Author: Ambrose Bierce [More Titles by Bierce]

O Liberty, God-gifted--
Young and immortal maid--
In your high hand uplifted;
The torch declares your trade.

Its crimson menace, flaming
Upon the sea and shore,
Is, trumpet-like, proclaiming
That Law shall be no more.

Austere incendiary,
We're blinking in the light;
Where is your customary
Grenade of dynamite?

Where are your staves and switches
For men of gentle birth?
Your mask and dirk for riches?
Your chains for wit and worth?

Perhaps, you've brought the halters
You used in the old days,
When round religion's altars
You stabled Cromwell's bays?

Behind you, unsuspected,
Have you the axe, fair wench,
Wherewith you once collected
A poll-tax from the French?

America salutes you--
Preparing to disgorge.
Take everything that suits you,
And marry Henry George.

1894


[The end]
Ambrose Bierce's poem: To The Bartholdi Statue

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN