Analysis of A Poet's Hope
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
'Twas a weary-looking mortal, and he wandered near the portal
Of the melancholy City of the Discontented Dead.
He was pale and worn exceeding and his manner was unheeding,
As if it could not matter what he did nor what he said.
'Sacred stranger'-I addressed him with a reverence befitting
The austere, unintermitting, dread solemnity he wore;
'Tis the custom, too, prevailing in that vicinage when hailing
One who possibly may be a person lately 'gone before'
'Sacred stranger, much I ponder on your evident dejection,
But my carefulest reflection leaves the riddle still unread.
How do you yourself explain your dismal tendency to wander
By the melancholy City of the Discontented Dead?'
Then that solemn person, pausing in the march that he was making,
Roused himself as if awaking, fixed his dull and stony eye
On my countenance and, slowly, like a priest devout and holy,
Chanted in a mournful monotone the following reply:
'O my brother, do not fear it; I'm no disembodied spirit
I am Lampton, the Slang Poet, with a price upon my head.
I am watching by this portal for some late lamented mortal
To arise in his disquietude and leave his earthy bed.
'Then I hope to take possession and pull in the earth above me
And, renouncing my profession, ne'er be heard of any more.
For there's not a soul to love me and no living thing respects me,
Which so painfully affects me that I fain would 'go before.''
Then I felt a deep compassion for the gentleman's dejection,
For privation of affection would refrigerate a frog.
So I said: 'If nothing human, and if neither man nor woman
Can appreciate the fashion of your merit-buy a dog.'
Scheme | ABCB CDCD EBXB CFGF XBAB GDGD ECEC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 1010101001101010 1010010100101 11101010011011 11111101111111 101101110100010 00111010011 10101010011110 111001101010101 10101110111001 1110101010101 1110101110100110 1010010100101 1110101000111110 1011111110101 1110001010101010 10001010010001 1110111111001010 111001101010111 1110111011101010 101011011101 1111101001001011 001010101111101 1110111101101011 111000111111101 1110101010101 10101010101001 1111101001101110 10100101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,612 |
Words | 291 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 184 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 87 Views
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