Poesy
Successive bards pursue Ambition's fireThat shines, Oblivion, above thy mire.The latest mounts his predecessor's trunk,And sinks his brother ere himself is sunk.So die ingloriously Fame's élite,But dams of dunces keep the line complete.
Words in this poem
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- ingloriously adv.
- In an inglorious manner; dishonorably; with shame; ignominiously; obscurely.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poesy 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, Poesy, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/poesy.html, id L27981.
Form and metre
Poesy is 6 lines in a single stanza. 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 91%).
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 AABB-- fireA · mireA · trunkB · sunkB · élite · complete
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Successive bards pursue Ambition's fire | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| That shines, Oblivion, above thy mire. | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| The latest mounts his predecessor's trunk, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘· |
| And sinks his brother ere himself is sunk. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| So die ingloriously Fame's élite, | 9 | ··˘/˘˘˘·· |
| But dams of dunces keep the line complete. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
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.