The Following Pair
O very remarkable mortal,What food is engaging your jawsAnd staining with amber their portal?"It's 'baccy I chaws."
And why do you sway in your walking,To right and left many degrees,And hitch up your trousers when talking?"I follers the seas."
Great indolent shark in the rollers,Is "'baccy," too, one of your faults?--You, too, display maculate molars."I dines upon salts."
Strange diet!--intestinal pain itIs commonly given to nip.And how can you ever obtain it?"I follers the ship."
Words in this poem
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- maculate v. t.
- To spot; to stain; to blur. [L. maculatus, p. p. of maculare to spot. See Macula, and cf. Macule, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Following Pair 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 Following Pair, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/the-following-pair.html, id L28076.
Form and metre
The Following Pair is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 ABAB mortalA · jawsB · portalA · chawsB
- 2 ABAB walkingA · degreesB · talkingA · seasB
- 3 ABAB rollersA · faultsB · molarsA · saltsB
- 4 ABAB itA · nipB · itA · shipB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O very remarkable mortal, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| What food is engaging your jaws | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| And staining with amber their portal? | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| "It's 'baccy I chaws." | 5 | ····· |
| And why do you sway in your walking, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| To right and left many degrees, | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| And hitch up your trousers when talking? | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| "I follers the seas." | 5 | ····· |
| Great indolent shark in the rollers, | 9 | ·/˘˘···/˘ |
| Is "'baccy," too, one of your faults?-- | 8 | ········ |
| You, too, display maculate molars. | 9 | ··˘//˘˘·· |
| "I dines upon salts." | 5 | ····· |
| Strange diet!--intestinal pain it | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘˘·· |
| Is commonly given to nip. | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| And how can you ever obtain it? | 9 | ····/˘˘/· |
| "I follers the ship." | 5 | ····· |
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.