Strained Relations
Says England to Germany: "Africa's ours."Says Germany: "Ours, I opine."Says Africa: "Tell me, delectable Pow'rs,What is it that ought to be mine?"
Words in this poem
- opine v. t.
- To have an opinion; to judge; to think; to suppose. South. [L. opinari, p.p. opinatus; akin to opinus (in comp.) thinking, and perh. to E. apt: cf. F. opiner.]
- delectable a.
- Highly pleasing; delightful. [OF. delitable, OF. delitable, F. délectable, fr. L. delectabilis, fr. delectare to delight. See Delight.]
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Strained Relations 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, Strained Relations, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/strained-relations.html, id L28200.
Form and metre
Strained Relations is 4 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 -A-A ours · opineA · pow'rs · mineA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Says England to Germany: "Africa's ours." | 10 | ·/˘·/˘/˘˘/ |
| Says Germany: "Ours, I opine." | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| Says Africa: "Tell me, delectable Pow'rs, | 10 | ·/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| What is it that ought to be mine?" | 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.