Metempsychosis
Once with Christ he entered Salem,Once in Moab bullied Balaam,Once by Apuleius stagedHe the pious much enraged.And, again, his head, as beaver,Topped the neck of Nick the Weaver.Omar saw him (minus tether--Free and wanton as the weather:Knowing naught of bit or spur)Stamping over Bahram-Gur.Now, as Altgeld, see him joyAs Governor of Illinois!
Words in this poem
- nick n.
- A notch cut into something; as: (a) A score for keeping an account; a reckoning. [Akin to Nock.]
- tether n.
- A long rope or chain by which an animal is fastened, as to a stake, so that it can range or feed only within certain limits. [Formerly tedder, OE. tedir; akin to LG. tider, tier, Icel. tjo, Dan. töir. *64.]
- illinois n.
- A tribe of North American Indians, which formerly occupied the region between the Wabash and Mississippi rivers.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Metempsychosis 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, Metempsychosis, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/metempsychosis.html, id L28139.
Form and metre
Metempsychosis is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCCDDEEFF salemA · balaamA · stagedB · enragedB · beaverC · weaverC · tetherD · weatherD · spurE · gurE · joyF · illinoisF
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Once with Christ he entered Salem, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Once in Moab bullied Balaam, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Once by Apuleius staged | 7 | ······˘ |
| He the pious much enraged. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And, again, his head, as beaver, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Topped the neck of Nick the Weaver. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Omar saw him (minus tether-- | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Free and wanton as the weather: | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Knowing naught of bit or spur) | 7 | /˘····· |
| Stamping over Bahram-Gur. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Now, as Altgeld, see him joy | 7 | ······· |
| As Governor of Illinois! | 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.