Analysis of Tidings Of Good
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Old Nick from his place of last resort
Came up and looked the world over.
He saw how the grass of the good was short
And the wicked lived in clover.
And he gravely said: 'This is all, all wrong,
And never by me intended.
If to me the power should ever belong
I shall have this thing amended.'
He looked so solemn and good and wise
As he made this observation
That the men who heard him believed their eyes
Instead of his reputation.
So they bruited the matter about, and each
Reported the words as nearly
As memory served-with additional speech
To bring out the meaning clearly.
The consequence was that none understood,
And the wildest rumors started
Of something intended to help the good
And injure the evil-hearted.
Then Robert Morrow was seen to smile
With a bright and lively joyance.
'A man,' said he, 'that is free from guile
Will now be free from annoyance.
'The Featherstones doubtless will now increase
And multiply like the rabbits,
While jailers, deputy sheriffs, police,
And writers will form good habits.
'The widows more easily robbed will be,
And no juror will ever heed 'em,
But open his purse to my eloquent plea
For security, gain, or freedom.'
When Benson heard of the luck of the good
(He was eating his dinner) he muttered:
'It cannot help _me_, for 'tis understood
My bread is already buttered.
'My plats of surveys are all false, they say,
But that cannot greatly matter
To me, for I'll tell the jurors that they
May lick, if they please, my platter.'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IDID JEJX KLKL HXHX IMIM NBNB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111111101 11010110 1110110111 00101010 0110111111 01011010 11101011001 11111010 111100101 1111010 1011110111 0111010 1110100101 1001110 11001101001 11101010 010011101 00101010 1100101101 01001010 110101111 1010101 011111111 11111010 01101101 0101010 1101001001 01011110 0101100111 011011011 11011111001 101001110 1101101101 1110110110 110111101 11101010 1110111111 11101010 1111101011 11111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,445 |
Words | 272 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 23, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 114 Views
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"Tidings Of Good" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1994/tidings-of-good>.
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