Analysis of The Setting Sachem
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
'Twas an Injin chieftain, in feathers all fine,
Who stood on the ocean's rim;
There were numberless leagues of excellent brine
But there wasn't enough for him.
So he knuckled a thumb in his painted eye,
And added a tear to the scant supply.
The surges were breaking with thund'rous voice,
The winds were a-shrieking shrill;
This warrior thought that a trifle of noise
Was needed to fill the bill.
So he lifted the top of his head off and scowled
Exalted his voice, did this chieftain, and howled!
The sun was aflame in a field of gold
That hung o'er the Western Sea;
Bright banners of light were broadly unrolled,
As banners of light should be.
But no one was 'speaking a piece' to that sun,
And therefore this Medicine Man begun:
'O much heap of bright! O big ball of warm!
I've tracked you from sea to sea!
For the Paleface has been at some pains to inform
Me, _you_ are the emblem of _me_.
He says to me, cheerfully: 'Westward Ho!'
And westward I've hoed a most difficult row.
'Since you are the emblem of me, I presume
That I am the emblem of you,
And thus, as we're equals, 't is safe to assume,
That one great law governs us two.
So now if I set in the ocean with thee,
With thee I shall rise again out of the sea.'
His eloquence first, and his logic the last!
Such orators die!-and he died:
The trump was against him-his luck bad-he 'passed'
And so he 'passed out'-with the tide.
This Injin is rid of the world with a whim
The world it is rid of his speeches and him.
Scheme | ABABCC XDXDEE XFEFGG HFHBII JKJKFF LMLMBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111001011 1110101 101111001 11100111 11100101101 0100110101 010010111 0100101 11001101011 1101101 111001111101 01011111001 0110100111 11100101 110110101 1101111 11111001111 011100101 1111111111 1111111 10111111101 11101011 1111100101 01011011001 11101011101 11101011 011110111101 11111011 11111001011 11111011101 11001011001 11001011 01101111111 01111101 1111101101 01111111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,447 |
Words | 288 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 102 Views
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"The Setting Sachem" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1970/the-setting-sachem>.
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