The Devil’s Dictionary by Abrose Bierce

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Out-of-doors
n. That part of one’s environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets.
I climbed to the top of a mountain one day To see the sun setting in glory, And I thought, as I looked at his vanishing ray, Of a perfectly splendid story.
’Twas about an old man and the ass he bestrode Till the strength of the beast was o’ertested; Then the man would carry him miles on the road Till Neddy was pretty well rested.
The moon rising solemnly over the crest Of the hills to the east of my station Displayed her broad disk to the darkening west Like a visible new creation.
And I thought of a joke (and I laughed till I cried) Of an idle young woman who tarried About a church-door for a look at the bride, Although ’twas herself that was married.
To poets all Nature is pregnant with grand Ideas — with thought and emotion. I pity the dunces who don’t understand The speech of earth, heaven and ocean.
Stromboli Smith
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