To An Insolent Attorney Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDCCEE FFGGH IIJJIIIIKKIILLKKMM NNIIIIOOPPQQ IIIIRRPPIISSIIIITTUU

So Hall McAllister you'll not be warnedA
My protest slighted admonition scornedA
To save your scoundrel client from a cellB
As loth to swallow him as he to swellB
Its sum of meals insurgent it decriesC
All wars intestinal with meats that riseC
You turn your scurril tongue against the pressD
And damn the agency you ought to blessD
Had not the press with all its hundred eyesC
Discerned the wolf beneath the sheep's disguiseC
And raised the cry upon him he to dayE
Would lack your company and you would lack his payE
-
Talk not of 'hire' and consciences for saleF
You whose profession 'tis to threaten railF
Calumniate and libel at the willG
Of any villain who can pay the billG
You whose most honest dollars all were gotH
By saying for a fee 'the thing that's not '-
To you 'tis one to challenge or defendI
Clients are means their money is an endI
In my profession sometimes as in yoursJ
Always a payment large enough securesJ
A mercenary service to defendI
The guilty or the innocent to rendI
But mark the difference nor think it slightI
We do not hold it proper just and rightI
Of selfish lies a little still we shameK
And give our villainies another nameK
Hypocrisy's an ugly vice no doubtI
But blushing sinners can't get on withoutI
Happy the lawyer at his favored handsL
Nor truth nor decency the world demandsL
Secure in his immunity from shameK
His cheek ne'er kindles with the tell tale flameK
His brains for sale morality for hireM
In every land and century a licensed liarM
-
No doubt McAllister you can explainN
How honorable 'tis to lie for gainN
Provided only that the jury's madeI
To understand that lying is your tradeI
A hundred thousand volumes broad and flatI
The Bible not included proving thatI
Have been put forth though still the doubt remainsO
If God has read them with befitting painsO
No Morrow could get justice you'll declareP
If none who knew him foul affirmed him fairP
Ingenious man how easy 'tis to raiseQ
An argument to justify the course that paysQ
-
I grant you if you like that men may needI
The services performed for crime by greedI
Grant that the perfect welfare of the StateI
Requires the aid of those who in debateI
As mercenaries lost in early youthR
The fine distinction between lie and truthR
Who cheat in argument and set a snareP
To take the feet of Justice unawareP
Who serve with livelier zeal when rogues assistI
With perjury embracery the listI
Is long to quote than when an honest soulS
Scorning to plot conspire intrigue cajoleS
Reminds them their astonishment how greatI
He'd rather suffer wrong than perpetrateI
I grant in short 'tis better all aroundI
That ambidextrous consciences aboundI
In courts of law to do the dirty workT
That self respecting scavengers would shirkT
What then Who serves however clean a planU
By doing dirty work he is a dirty manU

Ambrose Bierce



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