The Debtor Abroad
Grief for an absent lover, husband, friend,Is barely felt before it comes to end:A score of early consolations serveTo modify its mouth's dejected curve.But woes of creditors when debtors fleeForever swell the separating sea.When standing on an alien shore you markThe steady course of some intrepid bark,How sweet to think a tear for you abides,Not all unuseful, in the wave she rides!--That sighs for you commingle in the galeBeneficently bellying her sail!
Words in this poem
- commingle v. t.
- To mingle together; to mix in one mass, or intimately; to blend.
- beneficently adv.
- In a beneficent manner; with beneficence.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Debtor Abroad 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 Debtor Abroad, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/the-debtor-abroad.html, id L28060.
Form and metre
The Debtor Abroad is 12 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 AABBCCDDEEFF friendA · endA · serveB · curveB · fleeC · seaC · markD · barkD · abidesE · ridesE · galeF · sailF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Grief for an absent lover, husband, friend, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Is barely felt before it comes to end: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A score of early consolations serve | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| To modify its mouth's dejected curve. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| But woes of creditors when debtors flee | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Forever swell the separating sea. | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘· |
| When standing on an alien shore you mark | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The steady course of some intrepid bark, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| How sweet to think a tear for you abides, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Not all unuseful, in the wave she rides!-- | 11 | ··········· |
| That sighs for you commingle in the gale | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Beneficently bellying her sail! | 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.