Fallen
O, hadst thou died when thou wert great,When at thy feet a nation kneltTo sob the gratitude it feltAnd thank the Saviour of the State,Gods might have envied thee thy fate!
Then was the laurel round thy brow,And friend and foe spoke praise of thee,While all our hearts sang victory.Alas! thou art too base to bowTo hide the shame that brands it now.
Words in this poem
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fallen 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, Fallen, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/fallen.html, id L28192.
Form and metre
Fallen is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAA greatA · kneltB · feltB · stateA · fateA
- 2 ABBAA browA · theeB · victoryB · bowA · nowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O, hadst thou died when thou wert great, | 8 | ········ |
| When at thy feet a nation knelt | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To sob the gratitude it felt | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thank the Saviour of the State, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Gods might have envied thee thy fate! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then was the laurel round thy brow, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And friend and foe spoke praise of thee, | 8 | ········ |
| While all our hearts sang victory. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Alas! thou art too base to bow | 8 | ˘/······ |
| To hide the shame that brands it now. | 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.