Analysis of A Rear Elevation
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Once Moses (in Scripture the story is told)
Entreated the favor God's face to behold.
Compassion divine the petition denied
Lest vision be blasted and body be fried.
Yet this much, the Record informs us, took place:
Jehovah, concealing His terrible face,
Protruded His rear from behind a great rock,
And edification ensued without shock.
So godlike Salvini, lest worshipers die,
Averting the blaze of his withering eye,
Tempers his terrors and shows to the pack
Of feeble adorers the broad of his back.
The fires of their altars, which, paled and declined
Before him, burn all the more brightly behind.
O happy adorers, to care not at all
Where fawning may tickle or lip-service fall!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001001011 101011101 01001001001 11011001011 11100101111 01001011001 111101011 0001001011 11111001 01001111001 1011001101 110101111 010111011001 01111011001 110111111 11011011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 677 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 546 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 118 Views
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"A Rear Elevation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1654/a-rear-elevation>.
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