Beecher
So, Beecher's dead. His was a great soul, too--Great as a giant organ is, whose reedsHold in them all the souls of all the creedsThat man has ever taught and never knew.
When on this mighty instrument He laidHis hand Who fashioned it, our common moanWas suppliant in its thundering. The toneGrew more vivacious when the Devil played.
No more those luring harmonies we hear,And lo! already men forget the sound.They turn, retracing all the dubious groundO'er which it led them, pigwise, by the ear.
Words in this poem
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
- thundering a.
- Emitting thunder.
- vivacious a.
- Having vigorous powers of life; tenacious of life; long-lived. [L. vívax, -acis, fr. vivere to live. See Vivid.]
- dubious a.
- Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined. [L. dubius, dubiosus, fr. duo two. See Two, and cf. Doubt.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beecher 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, Beecher, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/beecher.html, id L28111.
Form and metre
Beecher is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See 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 ABBA tooA · reedsB · creedsB · knewA
- 2 ABBA laidA · moanB · toneB · playedA
- 3 ABBA hearA · soundB · groundB · earA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| So, Beecher's dead. His was a great soul, too-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Great as a giant organ is, whose reeds | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Hold in them all the souls of all the creeds | 10 | ·········· |
| That man has ever taught and never knew. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When on this mighty instrument He laid | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| His hand Who fashioned it, our common moan | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| Was suppliant in its thundering. The tone | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘·· |
| Grew more vivacious when the Devil played. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| No more those luring harmonies we hear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| And lo! already men forget the sound. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| They turn, retracing all the dubious ground | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| O'er which it led them, pigwise, by the ear. | 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.