Explore "A Challenge" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A bull imprisoned in a stall / Broke boldly the confining wall, / And found himself, when out of bounds, / Within a washerwoman's grounds.
Where, hanging on a line to dry, / A crimson skirt inflamed his eye.
With bellowings that woke the dead, / He bent his formidable head, / With pointed horns and gnarly forehead; / Then, planting firm his shoulders horrid, / Began, with rage made half insane, / To paw the arid earth amain, / Flinging the dust upon his flanks / In desolating clouds and banks, / The while his eyes' uneasy white / Betrayed his doubt what foe the bright / Red tent concealed, perchance, from sight.
The garment, which, all undismayed, / Had never paled a single shade, / Now found a tongue -- a dangling sock, / Left carelessly inside the smock: / "I must insist, my gracious liege, / That you'll be pleased to raise the siege: / My colors I will never strike.
I know your sex -- you're all alike.
Some small experience I've had -- / You're not the first I've driven mad."