Explore "The Cynic's Bequest" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In that fair city, Ispahan, / There dwelt a problematic man, / Whose angel never was released, / Who never once let out his beast, / But kept, through all the seasons' round, / Silence unbroken and profound.
No Prophecy, with ear applied / To key-hole of the future, tried / Successfully to catch a hint / Of what he'd do nor when begin 't; / As sternly did his past defy / Mild Retrospection's backward eye.