Diagnosis
Cried Allen Forman: "Doctor, prayCompose my spirits' strife:O what may be my chances, say,Of living all my life?
"For lately I have dreamed of highAnd hempen dissolution!O doctor, doctor, how can IAmend my constitution?"
The learned leech replied: "You're youngAnd beautiful and strong--Permit me to inspect your tongue:H'm, ah, ahem!--'tis long."
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- hempen a.
- Made of hemp; as, a hempen cord.
- ahem interj.
- An exclamation to call one's attention; hem.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Diagnosis 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, Diagnosis, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/diagnosis.html, id L28191.
Form and metre
Diagnosis is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB prayA · strifeB · sayA · lifeB
- 2 ABAB highA · dissolutionB · iA · constitutionB
- 3 ABAB youngA · strongB · tongueA · longB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cried Allen Forman: "Doctor, pray | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| Compose my spirits' strife: | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| O what may be my chances, say, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of living all my life? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "For lately I have dreamed of high | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And hempen dissolution! | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| O doctor, doctor, how can I | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Amend my constitution?" | 7 | ˘/··˘/˘ |
| The learned leech replied: "You're young | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| And beautiful and strong-- | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Permit me to inspect your tongue: | 8 | ˘/··˘/·· |
| H'm, ah, ahem!--'tis long." | 6 | ··˘/·· |
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.