Analysis of At The Eleventh Hour
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
As through the blue expanse he skims
On joyous wings, the late
Frank Hutchings overtakes Miss Sims,
Both bound for Heaven's high gate.
In life they loved and (God knows why
A lover so should sue)
He slew her, on the gallows high
Died pious-and they flew.
Her pinions were bedraggled, soiled
And torn as by a gale,
While his were bright-all freshly oiled
The feathers of his tail.
Her visage, too, was stained and worn
And menacing and grim;
His sweet and mild-you would have sworn
That _she_ had murdered _him_.
When they'd arrived before the gate
He said to her: 'My dear,
'Tis hard once more to separate,
But _you_ can't enter here.
'For you, unluckily, were sent
So quickly to the grave
You had no notice to repent,
Nor time your soul to save.'
''Tis true,' said she, 'and I should wail
In Hell even now, but I
Have lingered round the county jail
To see a Christian die.'
Scheme | ABAB CACX DEDE FGFG BXBX HIHI ECEC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 11010111 110101 1101011 1111011 01110111 010111 11010101 110011 0100101 011101 11011101 010111 01011101 010001 11011111 111101 11010101 111011 1111110 111101 11101 110101 11110101 111111 11110111 0110111 11010101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 855 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 116 Views
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