Explore "Ad Cattonum" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I know not, Mr. Catton, who you are, / Nor very clearly why; but you go far / To show that you are many things beside / A Chilean Consul with a tempting hide; / But what they are I hardly could explain / Without afflicting you with mental pain.
Your name (gods! what a name the muse to woo -- / Suggesting cats, and hinting kittens, too!) / Points to an origin -- perhaps Maltese, / Perhaps Angoran -- where the wicked cease / From fiddling, and the animals that grow / The strings that groan to the tormenting bow / Live undespoiled of their insides, resigned / To give their name and nature to mankind.