Inspiration
O hoary sculptor, stay thy hand:I fain would view the lettered stone.What carvest thou?--perchance some grandAnd solemn fancy all thine own.For oft to know the fitting wordSome humble worker God permits."Jain Ann Meginnis,Agid 3rd.He givith His beluved fits."
Words in this poem
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- sculptor n.
- One who sculptures; one whose occupation is to carve statues, or works of sculpture. [L. sculptor, fr. sculpere, sculptum, to carve; cf. scalpere to cut, carve, scratch, and Gr. sculpteur.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- lettered a.
- Literate; educated; versed in literature.
- jain n.
- One of a numerous sect in British India, holding the tenets of Jainism. [Skr. Jaina, fr. Jina, a proper name, fr. jina victorious.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Inspiration 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, Inspiration, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/inspiration.html, id L28012.
Form and metre
Inspiration is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 99%).
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 ABAB-C--C handA · stoneB · grandA · ownB · word · permitsC · meginnis · — · fitsC
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 hoary sculptor, stay thy hand: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I fain would view the lettered stone. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What carvest thou?--perchance some grand | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And solemn fancy all thine own. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| For oft to know the fitting word | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some humble worker God permits. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| "Jain Ann Meginnis, | 5 | ····· |
| Agid 3rd. | 3 | ··· |
| He givith His beluved fits." | 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.