Analysis of The American Party

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



Oh, Marcus D. Boruck, me hearty,
I sympathize wid ye, poor lad!
A man that's shot out of his party
Is mighty onlucky, bedad!
An' the sowl o' that man is sad.

But, Marcus, gossoon, ye desarve it
Ye know for yerself that ye do,
For ye j'ined not intendin' to sarve it,
But hopin' to make it sarve you,
Though the roll of its members wuz two.

The other wuz Pixley, an' 'Surely,'
Ye said, 'he's a kite that wall sail.'
An' so ye hung till him securely,
Enactin' the role of a tail.
But there wuzn't the ghost of a gale!

But the party to-day has behind it
A powerful backin', I'm told;
For just enough Irish have j'ined it
(An' I'm m'anin' to be enrolled)
To kick ye out into the cold.

It's hard on ye, darlint, I'm thinkin'
So young-so American, too-
Wid bypassers grinnin' an' winkin',
An' sayin', wid ref'rence to you:
'Get onto the murtherin' Joo!'

Republicans never will take ye
They had ye for many a year;
An' Dimocrats-angels forsake ye!
If ever ye come about here
We'll brand ye and scollop yer ear!


Scheme ABAAB CDCDD AEAEE CFCFF GDGDD AXAHH
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11011110 1101111 011111110 11011 10111111 1101111 1111111 11111111 1111111 101111011 01011011 11101111 111111010 101101 11101101 1010111011 0100111 110110111 1111101 11110101 11111110 11101001 11111 111111 110011 010010111 11111001 1110011 11011011 1110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 982
Words 196
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
119

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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