Analysis of To A Stray Dog
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Well, Towser (I'm thinking your name must be Towser),
You're a decentish puppy as puppy dogs go,
For you never, I'm sure, could have dined upon trowser,
And your tail's unimpeachably curled just so.
But, dear me! your name-if 'tis yours-is a 'poser':
Its meaning I cannot get anywise at,
When spoken correctly perhaps it is Toser,
And means one who toses. Max Muller, how's that?
I ne'er was ingenious at all at divining
A word's prehistorical, primitive state,
Or finding its root, like a mole, by consigning
Its bloom to the turnep-top's sorrowful fate.
And, now that I think of it well, I'm no nearer
The riddle's solution than ever-for how's
My pretty invented word, 'tose,' any clearer
In point of its signification than 'towse'?
So, Towser (or Toser), I mean to rename you
In honor of some good and eminent man,
In the light and the heat of whose quickening fame you
May grow to an eminent dog if you can.
In sunshine like his you'll not long be a croucher:
The Senate shall hear you-for that I will vouch.
Come here, sir. Stand up. I rechristen you Goucher.
But damn you! I'll shoot you if ever you gouch!
Scheme | ABAB ACAC XDBD AEAE FGFG AHAH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1111011111 1011011011 111011111011 0111111 111111111010 110110111 11001001111 0111111011 111010111010 0111001 1101110111 1110111001 011111111110 0101011011 110010111010 0111111 1111111011 01011101001 0010011110011 11111001111 01111111010 01011111111 111111110110 11111111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,097 |
Words | 204 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 88 Views
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"To A Stray Dog" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2000/to-a-stray-dog>.
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