Weather Poem by Ambrose Bierce

Weather

Rating: 3.0


Once I dipt into the future far as human eye could see,
And I saw the Chief Forecaster, dead as any one can be--
Dead and damned and shut in Hades as a liar from his birth,
With a record of unreason seldome paralleled on earth.
While I looked he reared him solemnly, that incandescent youth,
From the coals that he'd preferred to the advantages of truth.
He cast his eyes about him and above him; then he wrote
On a slab of thin asbestos what I venture here to quote--
For I read it in the rose-light of the everlasting glow:
'Cloudy; variable winds, with local showers; cooler; snow.'

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Carlos Echeverria 11 July 2012

Ron Burgundy! Will Ferrell's voice reading this poem and if you don't laugh...

3 0 Reply

I like the line 'Once I dipt into the future far as human eye could see, ' in the first line of the poem contrasted with the ending everlasting glow: ' of 'Cloudy; variable winds, with local showers; cooler; snow.' Global warming and rising sea levels seems to have put the lie to this weather report also. Reminds me of the joke about the weather forecaster who had to move because the weather did not agree with him. Interesting that Claudia Krizay pointed out that the critic running this site is also disagreeable. I would have been interested in your original comment Claudia. My father taught me to weigh pros and cons of arguments and think before arguing, thus I shall weigh out of this one without an opinion on the actual quality of the poem, another sad cop out; nice ab end rhyme scheme though. The deletion of Claudia’s comment raises the question, do readers have the right to comment regardless of whether they like a poem or not? And whether other readers agree or disagree? My weather forecast on this one is most reader want to see both honest positive and negative comments on quality, because it makes reading comments more interesting. Any bets on how this comment weather’s the storm?

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Anthony Foster 11 July 2009

Made me laugh which cant be bad.

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Mark Nwagwu 11 July 2008

everything is there cloudy, windy, variable winds, cooler, snow - even I could forsee that for there is nothing much to forsee - shows you the folly of looking too far into the future instead of basking in the rose light of our todays

0 1 Reply
Joseph Poewhit 11 July 2009

Lots of safety in a blanket forecast, since GOD can change the weather in a flicker of the eye.

1 0 Reply
Stephen W 11 July 2014

The poem is about the notorious unreliability of weather forecasting, and the forecasters refusal to admit it, across generations of soliciting huge amounts of government money. Now they have satellites and vast computers they are much better than they used to be, but for a century they forecast utter tosh, at vast expense to the public.

4 5 Reply
Joseph Poewhit 11 July 2013

Usually never right -weather-people

1 4 Reply
James Mclain 11 July 2013

Forecasting the weather back then was as if. Remembering, Katherine Hepburn's house on the upper east coast. Like a Judge with a defendant before you. Do you punish or save those before you......iip

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Captain Cur 12 July 2012

What a fair weather poem, cloudy with a chance of brilliance. Great, great write! Is it safe to set sail today?

3 1 Reply

Help Claudia, the dark one keeps deleting the end of my comment, posting separately again. The deletion of Claudia’s comment raises the question, do readers have the right to comment regardless of whether they like a poem or not? And whether other readers agree or disagree? My weather forecast on this one is most reader want to see both honest positive and negative comments on quality, because it makes reading comments more interesting. Any bets on how this comment weather’s the storm?

3 1 Reply
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Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

Horse Cave Creek, Ohio
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