Exoneration
When men at candidacy don't connive,From that suspicion if their friends would free 'em,The teeth and nails with which they did not striveShould be exhibited in a museum.
Words in this poem
- candidacy n.
- The position of a candidate; state of being a candidate; candidateship.
- connive v. i.
- To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink. [L. connivere to shut the eues, connive, fr. con- + (perh.) a word akin to nicere to beckon, nictare to wink.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Exoneration 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, Exoneration, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/exoneration.html, id L28206.
Form and metre
Exoneration is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAB conniveA · emB · striveA · museumB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When men at candidacy don't connive, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘·˘/ |
| From that suspicion if their friends would free 'em, | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| The teeth and nails with which they did not strive | 10 | ·········· |
| Should be exhibited in a museum. | 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.