Analysis of From Virginia To Paris
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
The polecat, sovereign of its native wood,
Dashes damnation upon bad and good;
The health of all the upas trees impairs
By exhalations deadlier than theirs;
Poisons the rattlesnake and warts the toad
The creeks go rotten and the rocks corrode!
She shakes o'er breathless hill and shrinking dale
The horrid aspergillus of her tail!
From every saturated hair, till dry,
The spargent fragrances divergent fly,
Deafen the earth and scream along the sky!
Removed to alien scenes, amid the strife
Of urban odors to ungladden life
Where gas and sewers and dead dogs conspire
The flesh to torture and the soul to fire
Where all the 'well defined and several stinks'
Known to mankind hold revel and high jinks
Humbled in spirit, smitten with a sense
Of lost distinction, leveled eminence,
She suddenly resigns her baleful trust,
Nor ever lays again our mortal dust.
Her powers atrophied, her vigor sunk,
She lives deodorized, a sweeter skunk.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEE FFGGHHXXIIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011011101 1001001101 011101101 1110011 100100101 0111000101 11101010101 0101101 1100100111 011000101 1001010101 01110010101 11010111 11010011010 01110001110 1101010101 1111110011 1001010101 1101010100 1100010101 11010110101 0101000101 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 919 |
Words | 159 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 12 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 377 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 79 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
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"From Virginia To Paris" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1793/from-virginia-to-paris>.
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