Analysis of Justice
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Jack Doe met Dick Roe, whose wife he loved,
And said: 'I will get the best of him.'
So pulling a knife from his boot, he shoved
It up to the hilt in the breast of him.
Then he moved that weapon forth and back,
Enlarging the hole he had made with it,
Till the smoking liver fell out, and Jack
Merrily, merrily played with it.
Then he reached within and he seized the slack
Of the lesser bowel, and, traveling
Hither and thither, looked idly back
On that small intestine, raveling.
The wretched Richard, with many a grin
Laid on with exceeding suavity,
Curled up and died, and they ran John in
And charged him with sins of gravity.
The case was tried and a verdict found:
The jury, with great humanity,
Acquitted the prisoner on the ground
Of extemporary insanity.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD CECE FAFG HGHG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111111111 011110111 1100111111 1110100111 111110101 0100111111 1010101101 100100111 1110101101 1010100100 10011101 111010100 0101011001 1110101 110101110 011111100 011100101 010110100 0100100101 110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 751 |
Words | 145 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 107 Views
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"Justice" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1824/justice>.
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