Analysis of A Critic
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
That from _you_, neighbor! to whose vacant lot
Each rhyming literary knacker scourges
His cart-compelling Pegasus to trot,
As folly, fame or famine smartly urges?
Admonished by the stimulating goad,
How gaily, lo! the spavined crow-bait prances
Its cart before it-eager to unload
The dead-dog sentiments and swill-tub fancies.
Gravely the sweating scavenger pulls out
The tail-board of his curst imagination,
Shoots all his rascal rubbish, and, no doubt,
Thanks Fortune for so good a dumping-station.
To improve your property, the vile cascade
Your thrift invites-to make a higher level.
In vain: with tons of garbage overlaid,
Your baseless bog sinks slowly to the devil.
'Rubbish may be shot here'-familiar sign!
I seem to see it in your every column.
You have your wishes, but if I had mine
'Twould to your editor mean something solemn.
Scheme | ABAX CBCX DEDE FGFG HIHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (60%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111011101 110100110 1101010011 11011101010 010101001 1101011110 1101110101 01110001110 1001010011 0111110010 1111010011 11011101010 10111000101 11011101010 011111010 11011101010 1011110101 111110110010 1111011111 11110011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 828 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 134 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
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"A Critic" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1612/a-critic>.
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