To the Bartholdi Statue
O Liberty, God-gifted--Young and immortal maid--In your high hand uplifted;The torch declares your trade.
Its crimson menace, flamingUpon the sea and shore,Is, trumpet-like, proclaimingThat Law shall be no more.
Austere incendiary,We're blinking in the light;Where is your customaryGrenade of dynamite?
Where are your staves and switchesFor men of gentle birth?Your mask and dirk for riches?Your chains for wit and worth?
Perhaps, you've brought the haltersYou used in the old days,When round religion's altarsYou stabled Cromwell's bays?
Behind you, unsuspected,Have you the axe, fair wench,Wherewith you once collectedA poll-tax from the French?
America salutes you--Preparing to disgorge.Take everything that suits you,And marry Henry George.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- dirk n.
- A kind of dagger or poniard; -- formerly much used by the Scottish Highlander. Dirk knife, a clasp knife having a large, dirklike blade. [Ir. duirc.]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- disgorge v. t.
- To eject or discharge by the throat and mouth; to vomit; to pour forth or throw out with violence, as if from the mouth; to discharge violently or in great quantities from a confined place. [F. dégorger, earlier desgorger; pref. dé-, des- (L. dis-) + gorge. See Gorge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Bartholdi Statue 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 the Bartholdi Statue, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/to-the-bartholdi-statue.html, id L28027.
Form and metre
To the Bartholdi Statue is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic 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 AAAA giftedA · maidA · upliftedA · tradeA
- 2 ABAB flamingA · shoreB · proclaimingA · moreB
- 3 ABAB incendiaryA · lightB · customaryA · dynamiteB
- 4 ABAB switchesA · birthB · richesA · worthB
- 5 ABAB haltersA · daysB · altarsA · baysB
- 6 ABAB unsuspectedA · wenchB · collectedA · frenchB
- 7 ABAB youA · disgorgeB · youA · georgeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O Liberty, God-gifted-- | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Young and immortal maid-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| In your high hand uplifted; | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| The torch declares your trade. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Its crimson menace, flaming | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Upon the sea and shore, | 6 | ······ |
| Is, trumpet-like, proclaiming | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| That Law shall be no more. | 6 | ······ |
| Austere incendiary, | 7 | ˘/˘/˘˘˘ |
| We're blinking in the light; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Where is your customary | 7 | ···/˘·˘ |
| Grenade of dynamite? | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Where are your staves and switches | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| For men of gentle birth? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Your mask and dirk for riches? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Your chains for wit and worth? | 6 | ······ |
| Perhaps, you've brought the halters | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| You used in the old days, | 6 | ······ |
| When round religion's altars | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| You stabled Cromwell's bays? | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Behind you, unsuspected, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Have you the axe, fair wench, | 6 | ······ |
| Wherewith you once collected | 7 | ˘/··˘/˘ |
| A poll-tax from the French? | 6 | ······ |
| America salutes you-- | 7 | ˘/˘˘˘/· |
| Preparing to disgorge. | 6 | ˘/˘·˘/ |
| Take everything that suits you, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And marry Henry George. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.