Analysis of A Wreath Of Immortelles

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



Judge Sawyer, whom in vain the people tried
To push from power, here is laid aside.
Death only from the bench could ever start
The sluggish load of his immortal part.

For those this mausoleum is erected
Who Stanford to the Upper House elected.
Their luck is less or their promotion slower,
For, dead, they were elected to the Lower.

Rash mortal! stay thy feet and look around-
This vacant tomb as yet is holy ground;
But soon, alas! Jim Fair will occupy
These premises-then, holiness, good-bye!

George Perry here lies stiff and stark,
With stone at foot and stone at head.
His heart was dark, his mind was dark-
'Ignorant ass!' the people said.

Not ignorant but skilled, alas,
In all the secrets of his trade:
He knew more ways to be an ass
Than any ass that ever brayed.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GHGH IXIA
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101010101 1111011101 1101011101 0101110101 1110101010 11010101010 11111101010 11100101010 1101110101 1101111101 110111110 1100110011 11011101 11110111 11111111 10010101 11001101 01010111 11111111 11011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 776
Words 147
Sentences 12
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 120
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
125

Ambrose Bierce

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

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