Analysis of The Ballad of Justifiable Homicide
Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Chicago, Illinois) – 1960 (New York City, New York)
They brought to me his mangled corpse
And I feared lest I should swing.
"O tell me, tell me,--and make it brief--
Why hast thou done this thing?
"Had this man robbed the starving poor
Or lived a gunman's life,
Had he set fire to cottages,
Or run off with thy wife?"
"He hath not robbed the starving poor
Or lived a gunman's life;
He hath set fire to no cottage,
Nor run off with my wife.
"Ye ask me such a question that
It now my lips unlocks:
I learned he was the man who planned
The second balcony box."
The jury pondered never an hour,
They thought not even a little,
But handed in unanimously
A verdict of acquittal.
Scheme | abxb cDxd cDxd xaxx xexe |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111101 0111111 111110111 111111 11110101 110101 111101100 111111 11110101 110101 111101110 111111 11110101 11111 11110111 0101001 0101010110 11110010 110001000 0101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 624 |
Words | 126 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 47 Views
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"The Ballad of Justifiable Homicide" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14161/the-ballad-of-justifiable-homicide>.
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