The Cynics Word Book

One of Bierces most famous works. Originally an occasional newspaper item which was first published in book form in 1906 as The Cynics Word Book. It consists of satirical definitions of English words which lampoon cant and political double-talk. Under the entry "leonine", meaning a single line of poetry with an internal rhyming scheme, he included an apocryphal couplet written by the apocryphal Bella Peeler Silcox (Ella Wheeler Wilcox) in which an internal rhyme is achieved in both lines only by mispronouncing the rhyming words: The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades. Cries Pluto, twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!" Later published as The Devils Dictionary, the title Bierce himself preferred to The Cynics Word Book.