A "Mute Inglorious Milton"
"O, I'm the Unaverage Man,But you never have heard of me,For my brother, the Average Man, outranMy fame with rapiditee,And I'm sunk in Oblivion's sea,But my bully big brother the world can spanWith his wide notorietee.I do everything that I canTo make 'em attend to me,But the papers ignore the Unaverage ManWith a weird uniformitee."
So sang with a dolorous noteA voice that I heard from the beach;On the sable waters it seemed to floatLike a mortal part of speech.The sea was Oblivion's sea,And I cried as I plunged to swim:"The Unaverage Man shall reside with me."But he didn't--I stayed with him!
Words in this poem
- ignore v. t.
- To be ignorant of or not acquainted with. [L. ignorare; pref. in- not + the root of gnarus knowing, noscere to become acquainted with. See Know, and cf. Narrate.]
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A "Mute Inglorious Milton" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shapes of Clay (1903), Project Gutenberg ebook #12658; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ambrose Bierce, A "Mute Inglorious Milton", in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/a-mute-inglorious-milton.html, id L28034.
Form and metre
A "Mute Inglorious Milton" is 19 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABACBACABAC manA · meB · outranA · rapiditeeC · seaB · spanA · notorieteeC · canA · meB · manA · uniformiteeC
- 2 ABABCDCD noteA · beachB · floatA · speechB · seaC · swimD · meC · himD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "O, I'm the Unaverage Man, | 8 | ········ |
| But you never have heard of me, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| For my brother, the Average Man, outran | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| My fame with rapiditee, | 7 | ······· |
| And I'm sunk in Oblivion's sea, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But my bully big brother the world can span | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| With his wide notorietee. | 7 | ······· |
| I do everything that I can | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| To make 'em attend to me, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| But the papers ignore the Unaverage Man | 12 | ··/˘˘/······ |
| With a weird uniformitee." | 8 | ········ |
| So sang with a dolorous note | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| A voice that I heard from the beach; | 8 | ········ |
| On the sable waters it seemed to float | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| Like a mortal part of speech. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| The sea was Oblivion's sea, | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| And I cried as I plunged to swim: | 8 | ········ |
| "The Unaverage Man shall reside with me." | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| But he didn't--I stayed with him! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.