Two Methods
To bucks and ewes by the Good Shepherd fedThe Priest delivers masses for the dead,And even from estrays outside the foldDeath for the masses he would not withhold.The Parson, loth alike to free or kill,Forsakes the souls already on the grill,And, God's prerogative of mercy shamming,Spares living sinners for a harder damning.
Words in this poem
- grill v. t.
- To broil on a grill or gridiron. Boiling of men in caldrons, grilling them on gridirons. Marvell. [F. griller, fr. gril gridiron, OF. graïl, L. craticulum for craticula fine hurdlework, a small gridiron, dim. of crates hurdle. See Grate, n.]
- damning a.
- That damns; damnable; as, damning evidence of guilt.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Methods 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, Two Methods, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/two-methods.html, id L28170.
Form and metre
Two Methods is 8 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 90%).
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 AABBCCDD fedA · deadA · foldB · withholdB · killC · grillC · shammingD · damningD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To bucks and ewes by the Good Shepherd fed | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The Priest delivers masses for the dead, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And even from estrays outside the fold | 10 | ·/˘···//·· |
| Death for the masses he would not withhold. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The Parson, loth alike to free or kill, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Forsakes the souls already on the grill, | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘··· |
| And, God's prerogative of mercy shamming, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| Spares living sinners for a harder damning. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
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.