Analysis of The Fall Of Miss Larkin
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Hear me sing of Sally Larkin who, I'd have you understand,
Played accordions as well as any lady in the land;
And I've often heard it stated that her fingering was such
That Professor Schweinenhauer was enchanted with her touch;
And that beasts were so affected when her apparatus rang
That they dropped upon their haunches and deliriously sang.
This I know from testimony, though a critic, I opine,
Needs an ear that is dissimilar in some respects to mine.
She could sing, too, like a jaybird, and they say all eyes were wet
When Sally and the ranch-dog were performing a duet
Which I take it is a song that has to be so loudly sung
As to overtax the strength of any single human lung.
That, at least, would seem to follow from the tale I have to tell,
Which (I've told you how she flourished) is how Sally Larkin fell.
One day there came to visit Sally's dad as sleek and smart
A chap as ever wandered there from any foreign part.
Though his gentle birth and breeding he did not at all obtrude
It was somehow whispered round he was a simon-pure Dude.
Howsoe'er that may have been, it was conspicuous to see
That he _was_ a real Gent of an uncommon high degree.
That Sally cast her tender and affectionate regards
On this exquisite creation was, of course, upon the cards;
But he didn't seem to notice, and was variously blind
To her many charms of person and the merits of her mind,
And preferred, I grieve to say it, to play poker with her dad,
And acted in a manner that in general was bad.
One evening-'twas in summer-she was holding in her lap
Her accordion, and near her stood that melancholy chap,
Leaning up against a pillar with his lip in grog imbrued,
Thinking, maybe, of that ancient land in which he was a Dude.
Then Sally, who was melancholy too, began to hum
And elongate the accordion with a preluding thumb.
Then sighs of amorosity from Sally L. exhaled,
And her music apparatus sympathetically wailed.
'In the gloaming, O my darling!' rose that wild impassioned strain,
And her eyes were fixed on his with an intensity of pain,
Till the ranch-dog from his kennel at the postern gate came round,
And going into session strove to magnify the sound.
He lifted up his spirit till the gloaming rang and rang
With the song that to _his_ darling he impetuously sang!
Then that musing youth, recalling all his soul from other scenes,
Where his fathers all were Dudes and his mothers all Dudines,
From his lips removed the beaker and politely, o'er the grog,
Said: 'Miss Larkin, please be quiet: you will interrupt the dog.'
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGG HHIIJJKKLLMM NNAI OOPPQQRRCCXJXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111010111101 101001111010001 011011101010011 101011010101 01101010100101 1110111011 11111001010101 111110100010111 11111010111101 11000110010001 111110111111101 11100111010101 111111101011111 111111101110101 11111101011101 01110101110101 111010101111101 1111011101011 1111111010011 11101111010101 11010100010001 111000101110101 111011100110001 101011100010101 001111111110101 01000101010011 11010101110001 00100010111001 10101010111011 101011101011101 1101110010111 0010001001011 1111110101 0010010010001 001011101110101 001011111010011 10111110101111 0100110111001 11011101010101 10111110111 111010101111101 1110101011011 1110101000101001 11101110110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,499 |
Words | 466 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 12, 4, 14 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 499 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 116 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:21 min read
- 67 Views
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"The Fall Of Miss Larkin" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1923/the-fall-of-miss-larkin>.
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