Explore "Vice Versa" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Down in the state of Maine, the story goes, / A woman, to secure a lapsing pension, / Married a soldier -- though the good Lord knows / That very common act scarce calls for mention.
What makes it worthy to be writ and read -- / The man she married had been nine hours dead!
Now, marrying a corpse is not an act / Familiar to our daily observation, / And so I crave her pardon if the fact / Suggests this interesting speculation: / Should some mischance restore the man to life / Would she be then a widow, or a wife?
Let casuists contest the point; I'm not / Disposed to grapple with so great a matter. / 'T would tie my thinker in a double knot / And drive me staring mad as any hatter -- / Though I submit that hatters are, in fact, / Sane, and all other human beings cracked.
Small thought have I of Destiny or Chance; / Luck seems to me the same thing as Intention; / In metaphysics I could ne'er advance, / And think it of the Devil's own invention.
Enough of joy to know though when I wed / I "must" be married, yet I "may" be dead.