An Average
I ne'er could be entirely fondOf any maiden who's a blonde,And no brunette that e'er I sawHad charms my heart's wholewarmth to draw.
Yet sure no girl was ever madeJust half of light and half of shade.And so, this happy mean to get,I love a blonde and a brunette.
Words in this poem
- blonde a.
- Of a fair color; light-colored; as, blond hair; a blond complexion. [F., fair, light, of uncertain origin; cf. AS. blonden-feax gray-haired, old, prop. blended-haired, as a mixture of white and brown or black. See Blend, v. t.]
- brunette n.
- A girl or woman with a somewhat brown or dark complexion. [F. brunet, brunette, brownish, dim. of brun, brune, brown, fr. OHG. br. See Brown, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Average 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, An Average, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/an-average.html, id L28085.
Form and metre
An Average is 9 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AAB-B fondA · blondeA · sawB · whole · drawB
- 2 AABB madeA · shadeA · getB · brunetteB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I ne'er could be entirely fond | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Of any maiden who's a blonde, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And no brunette that e'er I saw | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Had charms my heart's whole | 5 | ····· |
| warmth to draw. | 3 | ··· |
| Yet sure no girl was ever made | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Just half of light and half of shade. | 8 | ········ |
| And so, this happy mean to get, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I love a blonde and a brunette. | 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.