A Serenade
"Sas agapo sas agapo,"He sang beneath her lattice."'Sas agapo'?" she murmured--"O,I wonder, now, what that is!"
Was she less fair that she did bearSo light a load of knowledge?Are loving looks got out of books,Or kisses taught in college?
Of woman's lore give me no moreThan how to love,--in manyA tongue men brawl: she speaks them allWho says "I love," in any.
About this text
A Serenade 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 Serenade, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/a-serenade.html, id L28134.
Form and metre
A Serenade is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 A-A- agapoA · lattice · oA · is
- 2 -A-A bear · knowledgeA · books · collegeA
- 3 -A-A more · manyA · all · anyA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Sas agapo sas agapo," | 8 | ········ |
| He sang beneath her lattice. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| "'Sas agapo'?" she murmured--"O, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I wonder, now, what that is!" | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Was she less fair that she did bear | 8 | ········ |
| So light a load of knowledge? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Are loving looks got out of books, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or kisses taught in college? | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Of woman's lore give me no more | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Than how to love,--in many | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A tongue men brawl: she speaks them all | 8 | ········ |
| Who says "I love," in any. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.