Analysis of In The Binnacle
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
The Church's compass, if you please,
Has two or three (or more) degrees
Of variation;
And many a soul has gone to grief
On this or that or t'other reef
Through faith unreckoning or brief
Miscalculation.
Misguidance is of perils chief
To navigation.
The obsequious thing makes, too, you'll mark,
Obeisance through a little arc
Of declination;
For Satan, fearing witches, drew
From Death's pale horse, one day, a shoe,
And nailed it to his door to undo
Their machination.
Since then the needle dips to woo
His habitation.
Scheme | AABCCCBCB DDBEEEBEB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010111 11111101 1010 010011111 111111101 11111 01010 111101 11010 0010011111 110101 11 11010101 11111101 011111101 1010 11010111 1010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 510 |
Words | 91 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 118 Views
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