Tempora Mutantur
"The world is dull," I cried in my despair:"Its myths and fables are no longer fair.
"Roll back thy centuries, O Father Time.To Greece transport me in her golden prime.
"Give back the beautiful old Gods again--The sportive Nymphs, the Dryad's jocund train,
"Pan piping on his reeds, the Naiades,The Sirens singing by the sleepy seas.
"Nay, show me but a Gorgon and I'll dareTo lift mine eyes to her peculiar hair
"(The fatal horrors of her snaky pate,That stiffen men into a stony state)
"And die--erecting, as my soul goes hence,A statue of myself, without expense."
Straight as I spoke I heard the voice of Fate:"Look up, my lad, the Gorgon sisters wait."
Raising my eyes, I saw Medusa stand,Stheno, Euryale, on either hand.
I gazed unpetrified and unappalled--The girls had aged and were entirely bald!
Words in this poem
- jocund
- Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- snaky a.
- Of or pertaining to a snake or snakes; resembling a snake; serpentine; winding.
- pate n.
- A pie. See Patty. [F. pâté.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- euryale n.
- A genus of water lilies, growing in India and China. The only species (E. ferox) is very prickly on the peduncles and calyx. The rootstocks and seeds are used as food. [NL., fr. Euryale, one of the Gorgons.]
- unappalled a.
- Not appalled; not frightened; dauntless; undaunted.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tempora Mutantur 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, Tempora Mutantur, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/tempora-mutantur.html, id L28081.
Form and metre
Tempora Mutantur is 20 lines in 10 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 AA despairA · fairA
- 2 AA timeA · primeA
- 3 AA againA · trainA
- 5 AA dareA · hairA
- 6 AA pateA · stateA
- 7 AA henceA · expenseA
- 8 AA fateA · waitA
- 9 AA standA · handA
- 10 AA unappalledA · baldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "The world is dull," I cried in my despair: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| "Its myths and fables are no longer fair. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| "Roll back thy centuries, O Father Time. | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| To Greece transport me in her golden prime. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| "Give back the beautiful old Gods again-- | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| The sportive Nymphs, the Dryad's jocund train, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| "Pan piping on his reeds, the Naiades, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Sirens singing by the sleepy seas. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| "Nay, show me but a Gorgon and I'll dare | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To lift mine eyes to her peculiar hair | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| "(The fatal horrors of her snaky pate, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| That stiffen men into a stony state) | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| "And die--erecting, as my soul goes hence, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| A statue of myself, without expense." | 10 | ·/···/··˘/ |
| Straight as I spoke I heard the voice of Fate: | 10 | ·········· |
| "Look up, my lad, the Gorgon sisters wait." | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Raising my eyes, I saw Medusa stand, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Stheno, Euryale, on either hand. | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| I gazed unpetrified and unappalled-- | 10 | ··˘······· |
| The girls had aged and were entirely bald! | 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.