Analysis of The Key Note
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
I dreamed I was dreaming one morn as I lay
In a garden with flowers teeming.
On an island I lay in a mystical bay,
In the dream I dreamed I was dreaming.
The ghost of a scent-had it followed me there
From the place where I truly was resting?
It filled like an anthem the aisles of the air,
The presence of roses attesting.
Yet I thought in the dream that I dreamed I dreamed
That the place was all barren of roses-
That it only seemed; and the place, I deemed,
Was the Isle of Bewildered Noses.
Full many a seaman had testified
How all who sailed near were enchanted,
And landed to search (and in searching died)
For the roses the Sirens had planted.
For the Sirens were dead, and the billows boomed
In the stead of their singing forever;
But the roses bloomed on the graves of the doomed,
Though man had discovered them never.
I though in my dream 'twas an idle tale,
A delusion that mariners cherished-
That the fragrance loading the conscious gale
Was a ghost of a rose long perished.
I said, 'I will fly from this island of woes.'
And acting on that decision,
By that odor of rose I was led by the nose,
For 'twas truly, ah! truly, Elysian.
I ran, in my madness, to seek out the source
Of the redolent river-directed
By some supernatural, sinister force
To a forest, dark, haunted, infected.
And still as I threaded ('twas all in the dream
That I dreamed I was dreaming) each turning
There were many a scream and a sudden gleam
Of eyes all uncannily burning!
The leaves were all wet with a horrible dew
That mirrored the red moon's crescent,
And all shapes were fringed with a ghostly blue,
Dim, wavering, phosphorescent.
But the fragrance divine, coming strong and free,
Led me on, though my blood was clotting,
Till-ah, joy!-I could see, on the limbs of a tree,
Mine enemies hanging and rotting!
Scheme | ABAB CBCB DEDE FXFG HIHI JKJK LMLM NGNG OBOB PXPD QBQB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 11111011111 001011010 111011001001 001111110 01101111011 1011110110 11111001101 010110010 11100111111 1011110110 1110100111 101101010 110010110 111110010 0101100101 1010010110 10100100101 0011110010 10101101101 111010110 1101111101 0010110010 1010100101 101101110 11111111011 01011010 111011111101 11101101 11011011101 1010010010 1101001001 1010110010 01111011001 1111110110 10100100101 111010010 01011101001 11001110 0110110101 11001 10100110101 111111110 111111101101 110010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,776 |
Words | 339 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 128 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:42 min read
- 76 Views
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"The Key Note" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1937/the-key-note>.
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