Analysis of A Critic

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



That from _you_, neighbor! to whose vacant lot
Each rhyming literary knacker scourges
His cart-compelling Pegasus to trot,
As folly, fame or famine smartly urges?

Admonished by the stimulating goad,
How gaily, lo! the spavined crow-bait prances
Its cart before it-eager to unload
The dead-dog sentiments and swill-tub fancies.

Gravely the sweating scavenger pulls out
The tail-board of his curst imagination,
Shoots all his rascal rubbish, and, no doubt,
Thanks Fortune for so good a dumping-station.

To improve your property, the vile cascade
Your thrift invites-to make a higher level.
In vain: with tons of garbage overlaid,
Your baseless bog sinks slowly to the devil.

'Rubbish may be shot here'-familiar sign!
I seem to see it in your every column.
You have your wishes, but if I had mine
'Twould to your editor mean something solemn.


Scheme ABAX CBCX DEDE FGFG HIHI
Poetic Form Quatrain  (60%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1111011101 110100110 1101010011 11011101010 010101001 1101011110 1101110101 01110001110 1001010011 0111110010 1111010011 11011101010 10111000101 11011101010 011111010 11011101010 1011110101 111110110010 1111011111 11110011010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 828
Words 138
Sentences 11
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 134
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
61

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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