Analysis of The Night Of Election

Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)



'O venerable patriot, I pray
Stand not here coatless; at the break of day
We'll know the grand result-and even now
The eastern sky is faintly touched with gray.

'It ill befits thine age's hoary crown
This rude environment of rogue and clown,
Who, as the lying bulletins appear,
With drunken cries incarnadine the town.

'But if with noble zeal you stay to note
The outcome of your patriotic vote
For Blaine, or Cleveland, and your native land,
Take-and God bless you!-take my overcoat.'

'Done, pard-and mighty white of you. And now
guess the country'll keep the trail somehow.
I aint allowed to vote, the Warden said,
But whacked my coat up on old Stanislow.'


Scheme AABA CCXC DDXD BBXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1100010011 111110111 1101010101 0101110111 1101110101 1101001101 1101010001 1101101 1111011111 01110101 1111001101 101111110 1101011101 1011011 1101110101 11111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 651
Words 120
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 128
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
41

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. more…

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    Repeated use of words for effect and emphasis is called ________.
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