Analysis of Indicted
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Dear Bruner, once we had a little talk
(That is to say, 'twas I did all the talking)
About the manner of your moral walk:
How devious the trail you made in stalking,
On level ground, your law-protected game
'Another's Dollar' is, I think, its name.
Your crooked course more recently is not
So blamable; for, truly, you have stumbled
On evil days; and 'tis your luckless lot
To traverse spaces (with a spirit humbled,
Contrite, dejected and divinely sad)
Where, 'tis confessed, the walking's rather bad.
Jordan, the song says, is a road (I thought
It was a river) that is hard to travel;
And Dublin, if you'd find it, must be sought
Along a highway with more rocks than gravel.
In difficulty neither can compete
With that wherein you navigate your feet.
As once George Gorham said of Pixley, so
I say of you: 'The prison yawns before you,
The turnkey stalks behind!' Now will you go?
Or lag, and let that functionary floor you?
To change the metaphor-you seem to be
Between Judge Wallace and the deep, deep sea!
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII JKJKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 11111111010 0101011101 11000111010 1101110101 0101011111 1101110011 111101110 1101011101 11010101010 0101000101 110101101 1001110111 11010111110 0101111111 0101111110 0100010101 110111011 1111011101 11110101011 011011111 1101110011 1101001111 0111000111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 995 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 195 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 72 Views
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"Indicted" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1815/indicted>.
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