Analysis of A Promised Fast Train
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
I turned my eyes upon the Future's scroll
And saw its pictured prophecies unroll.
I saw that magical life-laden train
Flash its long glories o'er Nebraska's plain.
I saw it smoothly up the mountain glide.
'O happy, happy passengers!' I cried.
For Pleasure, singing, drowned the engine's roar,
And Hope on joyous pinions flew before.
Then dived the train adown the sunset slope-
Pleasure was silent and unseen was Hope.
Crashes and shrieks attested the decay
That greed had wrought upon that iron way.
The rusted rails broke down the rotting ties,
And clouds of flying spikes obscured the skies.
My coward eyes I drew away, distressed,
And fixed them on the terminus to-West,
Where soon, its melancholy tale to tell,
One bloody car-wheel wabbled in and fell!
Scheme | AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH II |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Couplet |
Metre | 1111010101 011101001 1111001101 11110100101 1111010101 1101010011 1101010101 011101101 11011011 1011000111 1001010001 1111011101 0101110101 0111010101 1101110101 01110111 111100111 110111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 748 |
Words | 131 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 67 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 14 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 73 Views
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"A Promised Fast Train" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1651/a-promised-fast-train>.
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