The Birth of Virtue
When, long ago, the young world circling flewThrough wider reaches of a richer blue,New-eyed, the men and maids saw, manifest,The thoughts untold in one another's breast:Each wish displayed, and every passion learned--A look revealed them as a look discerned.But sating Time with clouds o'ercast their eyes;Desire was hidden, and the lips framed lies.A goddess then, emerging from the dust,Fair Virtue rose, the daughter of Distrust.
Words in this poem
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Birth of Virtue 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, The Birth of Virtue, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/the-birth-of-virtue.html, id L28067.
Form and metre
The Birth of Virtue is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AABBCCDDEE flewA · blueA · manifestB · breastB · learnedC · discernedC · eyesD · liesD · dustE · distrustE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When, long ago, the young world circling flew | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Through wider reaches of a richer blue, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| New-eyed, the men and maids saw, manifest, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The thoughts untold in one another's breast: | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Each wish displayed, and every passion learned-- | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| A look revealed them as a look discerned. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| But sating Time with clouds o'ercast their eyes; | 10 | ·········· |
| Desire was hidden, and the lips framed lies. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| A goddess then, emerging from the dust, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Fair Virtue rose, the daughter of Distrust. | 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.