A Welcome
Because you call yourself Knights Templar, andThere's neither Knight nor Temple in the land,--Because you thus by vain pretense degradeTo paltry purposes traditions grand,--
Because to cheat the ignorant you sayThe thing that's not, elated still to swayThe crass credulity of gaping foolsAnd women by fantastical display,--
Because no sacred fires did ever warmYour hearts, high knightly service to perform--A woman's breast or coffer of a manThe only citadel you dare to storm,--
Because while railing still at lord and peer,At pomp and fuss-and-feathers while you jeer,Each member of your order tries to graftA peacock's tail upon his barren rear,--
Because that all these things are thus and so,I bid you welcome to our city. Lo!You're free to come, and free to stay, and freeAs soon as it shall please you, sirs--to go.
Words in this poem
- crass a.
- Cross; thick; dense; coarse; not elaborated or refined. [L. crassus thick, fat, gross, prob. orig., closely woven See Crease animal fat, and cf. Crate, Hurdle.]
- fantastical a.
- Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious; fantastic.
- knightly a.
- Of or pertaining to a knight; becoming a knight; chivalrous; as, a knightly combat; a knightly spirit. [AS. cnihtlic boyish.]
- fuss n.
- A tumult; a bustle; unnecessary or annoying ado about trifles. [Cf. Fusome.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Welcome 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 Welcome, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/a-welcome.html, id L28133.
Form and metre
A Welcome is 20 lines in 5 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 92%).
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 andA · landA · degrade · grandA
- 2 AA-A sayA · swayA · fools · displayA
- 3 AA-A warmA · performA · man · stormA
- 4 AA-A peerA · jeerA · graft · rearA
- 5 AA-A soA · loA · free · goA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Because you call yourself Knights Templar, and | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| There's neither Knight nor Temple in the land,-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Because you thus by vain pretense degrade | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| To paltry purposes traditions grand,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Because to cheat the ignorant you say | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The thing that's not, elated still to sway | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The crass credulity of gaping fools | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| And women by fantastical display,-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Because no sacred fires did ever warm | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| Your hearts, high knightly service to perform-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| A woman's breast or coffer of a man | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The only citadel you dare to storm,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Because while railing still at lord and peer, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| At pomp and fuss-and-feathers while you jeer, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Each member of your order tries to graft | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A peacock's tail upon his barren rear,-- | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Because that all these things are thus and so, | 10 | ·········· |
| I bid you welcome to our city. Lo! | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| You're free to come, and free to stay, and free | 10 | ·········· |
| As soon as it shall please you, sirs--to go. | 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.