Analysis of A Question Of Eligibility
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
It was a bruised and battered chap
The victim of some dire mishap,
Who sat upon a rock and spent
His breath in this ungay lament:
'Some wars-I've frequent heard of such
Has beat the everlastin' Dutch!
But never fight was fit by man
To equal this which has began
In our (I'm in it, if you please)
Academy of Sciences.
For there is various gents belong
To it which go persistent wrong,
And loving the debates' delight
Calls one another names at sight.
Their disposition, too, accords
With fighting like they all was lords!
Sech impulses should be withstood:
'Tis scientific to be good.
''Twas one of them, one night last week,
Rose up his figure for to speak:
'Please, Mr. Chair, I'm holding here
A resolution which, I fear,
Some ancient fossils that has bust
Their cases and shook off their dust
To sit as Members here will find
Unpleasant, not to say unkind.'
And then he read it every word,
And silence fell on all which heard.
That resolution, wild and strange,
Proposed a fundamental change,
Which was that idiots no more
Could join us as they had before!
'No sooner was he seated than
The members rose up, to a man.
Each chap was primed with a reply
And tried to snatch the Chairman's eye.
They stomped and shook their fists in air,
And, O, what words was uttered there!
'The Chair was silent, but at last
He hove up his proportions vast
And stilled them tumults with a look
By which the undauntedest was shook.
He smiled sarcastical and said:
'If Argus was the Chair, instead
Of me, he'd lack enough of eyes
Each orator to recognize!
And since, denied a hearing, you
Might maybe undertake to do
Each other harm before you cease,
I've took some steps to keep the peace:
I've ordered out-alas, alas,
That Science e'er to such a pass
Should come!-I've ordered out-the gas!'
'O if a tongue or pen of fire
Was mine I could not tell entire
What the ensuin' actions was.
When swollered up in darkness' jaws
We fit and fit and fit and fit,
And everything we felt we hit!
We gouged, we scratched and we pulled hair,
And O, what words was uttered there!
And when at last the day dawn came
Three hundred Scientists was lame;
Two hundred others couldn't stand,
They'd been so careless handled, and
One thousand at the very least
Was spread upon the floor deceased!
'Twere easy to exaggerate,
But lies is things I mortal hate.
'Such, friends, is the disaster sad
Which has befel the Cal. Acad.
And now the question is of more
Importance than it was before:
Shall vacancies among us be
To idiots threw open free?'
Scheme | aabb ccddxxeeffgghh iixxjjkkllmmnn ddoopP qqrrssttuuvvwww xxxxyypPzzxx1 1 2 2 xbnn3 3 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11010101 0101111 11010101 1101101 11110111 11011 11011111 11011101 010101111 01001100 111100101 11110101 01000101 11010111 1010101 11011111 11001101 1010111 11111111 11110111 11011101 0010111 11010111 11001111 11110111 01011101 011111001 01011111 1010101 0100101 11110011 11111101 11011101 01011101 11111001 01110101 11011101 01111101 01110111 11110101 0111101 110111 11101 11010101 11110111 1100110 01010101 1101011 11010111 11111101 11010101 110101101 11110101 110111110 111111010 101101 1110101 11010101 0101111 11110111 01111101 01110111 11010011 11010101 11110100 11010101 11010101 1101010 11111101 11100101 111011 01010111 01011101 11000111 11001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,438 |
Words | 465 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 14, 14, 6, 15, 16, 6 |
Lines Amount | 75 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 278 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 35 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Question Of Eligibility" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1652/a-question-of-eligibility>.
Discuss this Ambrose Bierce poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In