Fate
Alas, alas, for the tourist's guide!--He turned from the beaten trail aside,Wandered bewildered, lay down and died.
O grim is the Irony of Fate:It switches the man of low estateAnd loosens the dogs upon the great.
It lights the fireman to roast the cook;The fisherman squirms upon the hook,And the flirt is slain with a tender look.
The undertaker it overtakes;It saddles the cavalier, and makesThe haughtiest butcher into steaks.
Assist me, gods, to balk the decree!Nothing I'll do and nothing I'll be,In order that nothing be done to me.
Words in this poem
- fireman n.
- A man whose business is to extinguish fires in towns; a member of a fire company.
- undertaker n.
- One who undertakes; one who engages in any project or business.
- cavalier n.
- A military man serving on horseback; a knight. [F. cavalier, It. cavaliere, LL. caballarius, fr. L. caballus. See Cavalcade, and cf. Cavallier, Caballine.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fate 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, Fate, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/fate.html, id L28052.
Form and metre
Fate is 15 lines in 5 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 79%).
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 guideA · asideA · diedA
- 2 AAA fateA · estateA · greatA
- 3 AAA cookA · hookA · lookA
- 4 AAA overtakesA · makesA · steaksA
- 5 AAA decreeA · beA · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alas, alas, for the tourist's guide!-- | 9 | ˘/˘/··/˘· |
| He turned from the beaten trail aside, | 10 | ··˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Wandered bewildered, lay down and died. | 10 | /˘˘˘/˘···· |
| O grim is the Irony of Fate: | 9 | ····/˘˘·· |
| It switches the man of low estate | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| And loosens the dogs upon the great. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| It lights the fireman to roast the cook; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The fisherman squirms upon the hook, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And the flirt is slain with a tender look. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The undertaker it overtakes; | 9 | ·/˘·˘·/˘· |
| It saddles the cavalier, and makes | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘·· |
| The haughtiest butcher into steaks. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Assist me, gods, to balk the decree! | 9 | ˘/·····˘/ |
| Nothing I'll do and nothing I'll be, | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| In order that nothing be done to me. | 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.