A Nightmare
I dreamed that I was dead. The years went by:The world forgot that such a man as IHad ever lived and written: other namesWere hailed with homage, in their turn to die.
Out of my grave a giant beech upgrew.Its roots transpierced my body, through and through,My substance fed its growth. From many landsMen came in troops that giant tree to view.
'T was sacred to my memory and fame--My monument. But Allen Forman came,Filled with the fervor of a new untruth,And carved upon the trunk his odious name!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- fervor n.
- Heat; excessive warmth. [OF. fervor, fervour, F. ferveur, L. fervor, fr. fervere. See Fervent.]
- untruth n.
- The quality of being untrue; contrariety to truth; want of veracity; also, treachery; faithlessness; disloyalty.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Nightmare 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 Nightmare, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/a-nightmare.html, id L28202.
Form and metre
A Nightmare is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AA-A byA · iA · names · dieA
- 2 AA-A upgrewA · throughA · lands · viewA
- 3 AA-A fameA · cameA · untruth · nameA
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I dreamed that I was dead. The years went by: | 10 | ·········· |
| The world forgot that such a man as I | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Had ever lived and written: other names | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Were hailed with homage, in their turn to die. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Out of my grave a giant beech upgrew. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Its roots transpierced my body, through and through, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| My substance fed its growth. From many lands | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Men came in troops that giant tree to view. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| 'T was sacred to my memory and fame-- | 10 | ··/˘··/˘·· |
| My monument. But Allen Forman came, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/·· |
| Filled with the fervor of a new untruth, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And carved upon the trunk his odious name! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.