Analysis of A Growler
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Judge Shafter, you're an aged man, I know,
And learned too, I doubt not, in the law;
And a head white with many a winter's snow
(I wish, however that your heart would thaw)
Claims reverence and honor; but the jaw
That's always wagging with a word malign,
Nagging and scolding every one in sight
As harshly as a jaybird in a pine,
And with as little sense of wrong and right
As animates that irritable creature,
Is not a very venerable feature.
You damn all witnesses, all jurors too
(And swear at the attorneys, I suppose,
But _that's_ commendable) 'till all is blue';
And what it's all about, the good Lord knows,
Not you; but all the hotter, fiercer glows
Your wrath for that-as dogs the louder howl
With only moonshine to incite their rage,
And bears with more ferocious menace growl,
Even when their food is flung into the cage.
Reform, your Honor, and forbear to curse us.
Lest all men, hearing you, cry: '_Ecce ursus_!'
Scheme | ABABBCDCDEE FGFGGHIHIXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 011111001 00111100101 111011111 1100010101 111010101 10010100101 110101001 0111011101 11001100010 11010100010 1111001101 0110010101 1101001111 0111010111 1111010101 1111110101 110110111 0111010101 10111110101 0111001111 111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 912 |
Words | 171 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 357 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 84 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 76 Views
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"A Growler" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1623/a-growler>.
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