For Merit
To Parmentier Parisians raiseA statue fine and large:He cooked potatoes fifty ways,Nor ever led a charge.
"Palmam qui meruit"--the restYou knew as well as I;And best of all to him that bestOf sayings will apply.
Let meaner men the poet's baysOr warrior's medal wear;Who cooks potatoes fifty waysShall bear the palm--de terre.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For Merit 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, For Merit, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/for-merit.html, id L28116.
Form and metre
For Merit 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 89%).
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 raiseA · largeB · waysA · chargeB
- 2 ABAB restA · iB · bestA · applyB
- 3 ABAB baysA · wearB · waysA · terreB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To Parmentier Parisians raise | 10 | ·/˘˘˘˘/˘˘· |
| A statue fine and large: | 6 | ·/···· |
| He cooked potatoes fifty ways, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Nor ever led a charge. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "Palmam qui meruit"--the rest | 7 | ······· |
| You knew as well as I; | 6 | ······ |
| And best of all to him that best | 8 | ········ |
| Of sayings will apply. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Let meaner men the poet's bays | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or warrior's medal wear; | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Who cooks potatoes fifty ways | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Shall bear the palm--de terre. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.