Revenge
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
A spitcat sate on a garden gate
And a snapdog fared beneath;
Careless and free was his mien, and he
Held a fiddle-string in his teeth.
She marked his march, she wrought an arch
Of her back and blew up her tail;
And her eyes were green as ever were seen,
And she uttered a woful wail.
The spitcat's plaint was as follows: 'It ain't
That I am to music a foe;
For fiddle-strings bide in my own inside,
And I twang them soft and low.
'But that dog has trifled with art and rifled
A kitten of mine, ah me!
That catgut slim was marauded from him:
'Tis the string that men call E.'
Then she sounded high, in the key of Y,
A note that cracked the tombs;
And the missiles through the firmament flew
From adjacent sleeping-rooms.
As her gruesome yell from the gate-post fell
She followed it down to earth;
And that snapdog wears a placard that bears
The inscription: 'Blind from birth.'
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 122 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XABA XCXC XDXD XBXB XEXE XFXF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 861 |
Words | 171 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Revenge" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/1884/revenge>.
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