Analysis of Revenge

Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)



A spitcat sate on a garden gate
And a snapdog fared beneath;
Careless and free was his mien, and he
Held a fiddle-string in his teeth.

She marked his march, she wrought an arch
Of her back and blew up her tail;
And her eyes were green as ever were seen,
And she uttered a woful wail.

The spitcat's plaint was as follows: 'It ain't
That I am to music a foe;
For fiddle-strings bide in my own inside,
And I twang them soft and low.

'But that dog has trifled with art and rifled
A kitten of mine, ah me!
That catgut slim was marauded from him:
'Tis the string that men call E.'

Then she sounded high, in the key of Y,
A note that cracked the tombs;
And the missiles through the firmament flew
From adjacent sleeping-rooms.

As her gruesome yell from the gate-post fell
She followed it down to earth;
And that snapdog wears a placard that bears
The inscription: 'Blind from birth.'


Scheme XABA XCXC XDXD XBXB XEXE XFXF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 01110101 001101 100111101 10101011 11111111 10101101 0010111001 0110011 011111011 11111001 1101101101 0111101 1111111010 0101111 1111111 1011111 1110100111 011101 00101011 1010101 1010110111 1101111 011101011 0010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 861
Words 171
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
122

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. more…

All Ambrose Bierce poems | Ambrose Bierce Books

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