Analysis of With Mine Own Petard
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Time was the local poets sang their songs
Beneath their breath in terror of the thongs
I snapped about their shins. Though mild the stroke
Bards, like the conies, are 'a feeble folk,'
Fearing all noises but the one they make
Themselves-at which all other mortals quake.
Now from their cracked and disobedient throats,
Like rats from sewers scampering, their notes
Pour forth to move, where'er the season serves,
If not our legs to dance, at least our nerves;
As once a ram's-horn solo maddened all
The sober-minded stones in Jerich's wall.
A year's exemption from the critic's curse
Mends the bard's courage but impairs his verse.
Thus poolside frogs, when croaking in the night,
Are frayed to silence by a meteor's flight,
Or by the sudden plashing of a stone
From some adjacent cottage garden thrown,
But straight renew the song with double din
Whene'er the light goes out or man goes in.
Shall I with arms unbraced (my casque unlatched,
My falchion pawned, my buckler, too, attached)
Resume the cuishes and the broad cuirass,
Accomplishing my body all in brass,
And arm in battle royal to oppose
A village poet singing through the nose,
Or strolling troubadour his lyre who strums
With clumsy hand whose fingers all are thumbs?
No, let them rhyme; I fought them once before
And stilled their songs-but, Satan! how they swore!
Cuffed them upon the mouth whene'er their throats
They cleared for action with their sweetest notes;
Twisted their ears (they'd oft tormented mine)
And damned them roundly all along the line;
Clubbed the whole crew from the Parnassian slopes,
A wreck of broken heads and broken hopes!
What gained I so? I feathered every curse
Launched at the village bards with lilting verse.
The town approved and christened me (to show its
High admiration) Chief of Local Poets!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJHKALMMNNOODDPPQQGGRS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101010111 0111010101 1101111101 110110101 1011010111 0111110101 1111001001 1111010011 1111100101 111011111101 11011111 010101011 0101010101 1011010111 111110001 111101011 110101101 1101010101 1101011101 101111110 11111111 1111100101 01010011 0100110101 0101010101 0101010101 110101111 1101110111 1111111101 0111110111 110101111 1111011101 101111101 0111010101 10111011 0111010101 11111101001 110101111 01010101111 1010111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,762 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,428 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 306 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 86 Views
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"With Mine Own Petard" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2036/with-mine-own-petard>.
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