Analysis of To Oscar Wilde

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



Because from Folly's lips you got
Some babbled mandate to subdue
The realm of Common Sense, and you
Made promise and considered not

Because you strike a random blow
At what you do not understand,
And beckon with a friendly hand
To something that you do not know,

I hold no speech of your desert,
Nor answer with porrected shield
The wooden weapon that you wield,
But meet you with a cast of dirt.

Dispute with such a thing as you
Twin show to the two-headed calf?
Why, sir, if I repress my laugh,
'T is more than half the world can do.


Scheme ABBA CDDC EFFE BGGB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 0111111 1101101 01110101 11000101 01110101 1111101 01010101 11011111 11111110 110111 01010111 11110111 01110111 11101101 11110111 111110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 528
Words 105
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
81

Ambrose Bierce

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

All Ambrose Bierce poems | Ambrose Bierce Books

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