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1842–1914

SOME ANTE-MORTEM EPITAPHS.

Ambrose Bierce

Fly, heedless stranger, from this spot accurst, Where rests in Satan an offender first In point of greatness, as in point of time, Of new-school rascals who proclaim their crime.

Skilled with a frank loquacity to blab The dark arcana of each mighty grab, And famed for lying from his early youth, He sinned secure behind a veil of truth.

Some lock their lips upon their deeds; some write A damning record and conceal from sight; Some, with a lust of speaking, die to quell it. His way to keep a secret was to tell it.

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SOME ANTE-MORTEM EPITAPHS. · Ambrose Bierce · Poetry Cove