One of the Unfair Sex
She stood at the ticket-seller'sSerenely removing her glove,While hundreds of strugglers and yellers,And some that were good at a shove,Were clustered behind her like bats ina cave and unwilling to speak their love.
At night she still stood at that windowEndeavoring her money to reach;The crowds right and left, how they sinned--O,How dreadfully sinned in their speech!Ten miles either way they extendedtheir lines, the historians teach.
She stands there to-day--legislationHas failed to remove her. The trainsNo longer pull up at that station;And over the ghastly remainsOf the army that waited and died ofold age fall the snows and the rains.
Words in this poem
- serenely adv.
- In a serene manner; clearly.
- dreadfully adv.
- In a dreadful manner; terribly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
One of the Unfair Sex 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, One of the Unfair Sex, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/one-of-the-unfair-sex.html, id L28071.
Form and metre
One of the Unfair Sex is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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-B seller'sA · gloveB · yellersA · shoveB · in · loveB
- 2 -A-A-A window · reachA · o · speechA · extended · teachA
- 3 ABAB-B legislationA · trainsB · stationA · remainsB · of · rainsB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| She stood at the ticket-seller's | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Serenely removing her glove, | 9 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘·· |
| While hundreds of strugglers and yellers, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And some that were good at a shove, | 8 | ········ |
| Were clustered behind her like bats in | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| a cave and unwilling to speak their love. | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| At night she still stood at that window | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Endeavoring her money to reach; | 9 | ˘/˘˘·/˘·· |
| The crowds right and left, how they sinned--O, | 10 | ········˘· |
| How dreadfully sinned in their speech! | 9 | ·/˘˘·˘··· |
| Ten miles either way they extended | 9 | ··/˘··˘/˘ |
| their lines, the historians teach. | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| She stands there to-day--legislation | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Has failed to remove her. The trains | 9 | ··˘·˘/··· |
| No longer pull up at that station; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| And over the ghastly remains | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| Of the army that waited and died of | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| old age fall the snows and the rains. | 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.