An Explanation
"I never yet exactly could determineJust how it is that the judicial ermineIs kept so safely from predacious vermin."
"It is not so, my friend: though in a garret'Tis kept in camphor, and you often air it,The vermin will get into it and wear it."
Words in this poem
- vermin n.
- An animal, in general. [OE. vermine, F. vermine, from L. vermis a worm; cf. LL. vermen a worm, L. verminosus full of worms. See Vermicular, Worm.]
- garret n.
- A turret; a watchtower. [OE. garite, garette, watchtower, place of lookout, OF. garite, also meaning, a place of refuge, F. guérite a place of refuge, donjon, sentinel box, fr. OF. gari]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Explanation 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 Explanation, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/an-explanation.html, id L28042.
Form and metre
An Explanation is 6 lines in 2 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 AAA determineA · ermineA · verminA
- 2 AAA garretA · itA · itA
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 never yet exactly could determine | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Just how it is that the judicial ermine | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| Is kept so safely from predacious vermin." | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| "It is not so, my friend: though in a garret | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| 'Tis kept in camphor, and you often air it, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| The vermin will get into it and wear it." | 11 | ·/˘········ |
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.