Revenge
A spitcat sate on a garden gateAnd a snapdog fared beneath;Careless and free was his mien, and heHeld a fiddle-string in his teeth.
She marked his march, she wrought an archOf her back and blew up her tail;And her eyes were green as ever were seen,And she uttered a woful wail.
The spitcat's plaint was as follows: "It ain'tThat I am to music a foe;For fiddle-strings bide in my own inside,And I twang them soft and low.
"But that dog has trifled with art and rifledA kitten of mine, ah me!That catgut slim was marauded from him:'Tis the string that men call E."
Then she sounded high, in the key of Y,A note that cracked the tombs;And the missiles through the firmament flewFrom adjacent sleeping-rooms.
As her gruesome yell from the gate-post fellShe followed it down to earth;And that snapdog wears a placard that bearsThe inscription: "Blind from birth."
Words in this poem
- sate v. t.
- To satisfy the desire or appetite of; to satiate; to glut; to surfeit. [Probably shortened fr. satiate: cf. L. satus full. See Satiate.]
- woful a.
- Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity; afflicted; wretched; unhappy; sad.
- plaint n.
- Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- catgut n.
- A cord of great toughness made from the intestines of animals, esp. of sheep, used for strings of musical instruments, etc. [Cat + gut.]
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- firmament n.
- Fixed foundation; established basis. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm: cf. F. firmament. See Firm, v. & a.]
- gruesome
- , Grue"some, a. Etym: [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Revenge 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, Revenge, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/revenge.html, id L28150.
Form and metre
Revenge is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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 -A-A gate · beneathA · he · teethA
- 2 -A-A arch · tailA · seen · wailA
- 3 -A-A ain't · foeA · inside · lowA
- 4 -A-A rifled · meA · him · eA
- 5 -A-A y · tombsA · flew · roomsA
- 6 -A-A fell · earthA · bears · birthA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A spitcat sate on a garden gate | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And a snapdog fared beneath; | 7 | ······· |
| Careless and free was his mien, and he | 9 | /˘······· |
| Held a fiddle-string in his teeth. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| She marked his march, she wrought an arch | 8 | ········ |
| Of her back and blew up her tail; | 8 | ········ |
| And her eyes were green as ever were seen, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| And she uttered a woful wail. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| The spitcat's plaint was as follows: "It ain't | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| That I am to music a foe; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| For fiddle-strings bide in my own inside, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And I twang them soft and low. | 7 | ······· |
| "But that dog has trifled with art and rifled | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| A kitten of mine, ah me! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| That catgut slim was marauded from him: | 10 | ·/˘··˘/˘·· |
| 'Tis the string that men call E." | 7 | ······· |
| Then she sounded high, in the key of Y, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| A note that cracked the tombs; | 6 | ······ |
| And the missiles through the firmament flew | 10 | ··/˘··/˘˘· |
| From adjacent sleeping-rooms. | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| As her gruesome yell from the gate-post fell | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| She followed it down to earth; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And that snapdog wears a placard that bears | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| The inscription: "Blind from birth." | 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.