Analysis of An Apology for the Bottle Volcanic
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
Sometimes I dip my pen and find the bottle full of fire,
The salamanders flying forth I cannot but admire.
It's Etna, or Vesuvius, if those big things were small,
And then 'tis but itself again, and does not smoke at all.
And so my blood grows cold. I say, "The bottle held but ink,
And, if you thought it otherwise, the worser for your think."
And then, just as I throw my scribbled paper on the floor,
The bottle says, "Fe, fi, fo, fum," and steams and shouts some more.
O sad deceiving ink, as bad as liquor in its way—
All demons of a bottle size have pranced from you to-day,
And seized my pen for hobby-horse as witches ride a broom,
And left a trail of brimstone words and blots and gobs of gloom.
And yet when I am extra good and say my prayers at night,
And mind my ma, and do the chores, and speak to folks polite,
My bottle spreads a rainbow-mist, and from the vapor fine
Ten thousand troops from fairyland come riding in a line.
I've seen them on their chargers race around my study chair,
They opened wide the window and rode forth upon the air.
The army widened as it went, and into myriads grew,
O how the lances shimmered, how the silvery trumpets blew!
Scheme | ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011111010101110 0010101110101 11010100111101 01110101011111 01111111010111 011111001111 01111111010101 01011111010111 11010111110011 11010101111111 01111101110101 01011101010111 01111101011111 01110101011101 1101011010101 1101110110001 11111101011101 11010100110101 0101011100111 11011010100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,162 |
Words | 229 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 897 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 225 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 136 Views
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