To Maude
Not as two errant spheres together grindWith monstrous ruin in the vast of space,Destruction born of that malign embrace,Their hapless peoples all to death consigned--Not so when our intangible worlds of mind,Even mine and yours, each with its spirit raceOf beings shadowy in form and face,Shall drift together on some blessed wind.No, in that marriage of gloom and lightAll miracles of beauty shall be wrought,Attesting a diviner faith than man's;For all my sad-eyed daughters of the nightShall smile on your sweet seraphim of thought,Nor any jealous god forbid the banns.
Words in this poem
- errant n.
- One who wanders about. Fuller.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- intangible a.
- Not tangible; incapable of being touched; not perceptible to the touch; impalpable; imperceptible. Bp. Wilkins. [Pref. in- not + tangible: cf. F. intangible.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- seraphim n.
- The Hebrew plural of Seraph. Cf. Cherubim.
- banns n.
- Notice of a proposed marriage, proclaimed in a church, or other place prescribed by law, in order that any person may object, if he knows of just cause why the marriage should not take place. [See Ban.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Maude 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, To Maude, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/to-maude.html, id L28066.
Form and metre
To Maude is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE grindA · spaceB · embraceB · consignedA · mindA · raceB · faceB · windA · lightC · wroughtD · man'sE · nightC · thoughtD · bannsE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not as two errant spheres together grind | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| With monstrous ruin in the vast of space, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Destruction born of that malign embrace, | 10 | ˘/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Their hapless peoples all to death consigned-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Not so when our intangible worlds of mind, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Even mine and yours, each with its spirit race | 10 | /······/˘· |
| Of beings shadowy in form and face, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Shall drift together on some blessed wind. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘· |
| No, in that marriage of gloom and light | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| All miracles of beauty shall be wrought, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Attesting a diviner faith than man's; | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| For all my sad-eyed daughters of the night | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Shall smile on your sweet seraphim of thought, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Nor any jealous god forbid the banns. | 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.