Analysis of Industrial Discontent
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
As time rolled on the whole world came to be
A desolation and a darksome curse;
And some one said: 'The changes that you see
In the fair frame of things, from bad to worse,
Are wrought by strikes. The sun withdrew his glimmer
Because the moon assisted with her shimmer.
'Then, when poor Luna, straining very hard,
Doubled her light to serve a darkling world,
He called her 'scab,' and meanly would retard
Her rising: and at last the villain hurled
A heavy beam which knocked her o'er the Lion
Into the nebula of great O'Ryan.
'The planets all had struck some time before,
Demanding what they said were equal rights:
Some pointing out that others had far more
That a fair dividend of satellites.
So all went out-though those the best provided,
If they had dared, would rather have abided.
'The stars struck too-I think it was because
The comets had more liberty than they,
And were not bound by any hampering laws,
While _they_ were fixed; and there are those who say
The comets' tresses nettled poor Altair,
An aged orb that hasn't any hair.
'The earth's the only one that isn't in
The movement-I suppose because she's watched
With horror and disgust how her fair skin
Her pranking parasites have fouled and blotched
With blood and grease in every labor riot,
When seeing any purse or throat to fly at.'
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHXX IJIJKK LXLXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111011111 00100011 0111010111 0011111111 11110101110 01010101010 1111010101 100111011 110101101 0100110101 010111010010 01010011110 0101111101 0101110101 1101110111 10110110 11111101010 11111101010 0111111101 0101110011 00111101001 1101011111 0101010101 111110101 0101011100 0101010111 1100011011 01101101 110101001010 11010111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,282 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 04, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 120 Views
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"Industrial Discontent" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1816/industrial-discontent>.
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