Stanley
Noting some great man's composition vile:A head of wisdom and a heart of guile,A will to conquer and a soul to dare,Joined to the manners of a dancing bear,Fools unaccustomed to the wide surveyOf various Nature's compensating sway,Untaught to separate the wheat and chaff,To praise the one and at the other laugh,Yearn all in vain and impotently seekSome flawless hero upon whom to wreakThe sycophantic worship of the weak.Not so the wise, from superstition free,Who find small pleasure in the bended knee;Quick to discriminate 'twixt good and bad,And willing in the king to find the cad--No reason seen why genius and conceit,The power to dazzle and the will to cheat,The love of daring and the love of gin,Should not dwell, peaceful, in a single skin.To such, great Stanley, you're a hero still,Despite your cradling in a tub for swill.Your peasant manners can't efface the markOf light you drew across the Land of Dark.
In you the extremes of character are wed,To serve the quick and villify the dead.Hero and clown! O, man of many sides,The Muse of Truth adores you and derides,And sheds, impartial, the revealing rayUpon your head of gold and feet of clay.
Words in this poem
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- impotently adv.
- In an impotent manner.
- flawless a.
- Free from flaws. Boyle.
- wreak v. i.
- To reck; to care.
- sycophantic a.
- Of or pertaining to a sycophant; characteristic of a sycophant; meanly or obsequiously flattering; courting favor by mean adulation; parasitic.
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- cradling n.
- The act of using a cradle.
- swill v. t.
- To wash; to drench. [OE. swilen to wash, AS. swilian.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanley 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, Stanley, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/stanley.html, id L28070.
Form and metre
Stanley is 29 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See 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 AABBCCDDEEEFFGGHHIIJJKK vileA · guileA · dareB · bearB · surveyC · swayC · chaffD · laughD · seekE · wreakE · weakE · freeF · kneeF · badG · cadG · conceitH · cheatH · ginI · skinI · stillJ · swillJ · markK · darkK
- 2 AABBCC wedA · deadA · sidesB · deridesB · rayC · clayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Noting some great man's composition vile: | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| A head of wisdom and a heart of guile, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A will to conquer and a soul to dare, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Joined to the manners of a dancing bear, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Fools unaccustomed to the wide survey | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Of various Nature's compensating sway, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘· |
| Untaught to separate the wheat and chaff, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To praise the one and at the other laugh, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yearn all in vain and impotently seek | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘· |
| Some flawless hero upon whom to wreak | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The sycophantic worship of the weak. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Not so the wise, from superstition free, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Who find small pleasure in the bended knee; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Quick to discriminate 'twixt good and bad, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And willing in the king to find the cad-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| No reason seen why genius and conceit, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| The power to dazzle and the will to cheat, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| The love of daring and the love of gin, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Should not dwell, peaceful, in a single skin. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To such, great Stanley, you're a hero still, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Despite your cradling in a tub for swill. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Your peasant manners can't efface the mark | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Of light you drew across the Land of Dark. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| In you the extremes of character are wed, | 10 | ···˘/·/˘·· |
| To serve the quick and villify the dead. | 10 | ·········· |
| Hero and clown! O, man of many sides, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| The Muse of Truth adores you and derides, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| And sheds, impartial, the revealing ray | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Upon your head of gold and feet of clay. | 10 | ·········· |
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.