Analysis of A Political Apostate
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
Good friend, it is with deep regret I note
The latest, strangest turning of your coat;
Though any way you wear that mental clout
The seamy side seems always to be out.
Who could have thought that you would e'er sustain
The Southern shotgun's arbitrary reign!
Your sturdy hand assisting to replace
The broken yoke on a delivered race;
The ballot's purity no more your care,
With equal privilege to dark and fair.
To Yesterday a traitor, to To-day
You're constant but the better to betray
To-morrow. Your convictions all are naught
But the wild asses of the world of thought,
Which, flying mindless o'er the barren plain,
Perceive at last they've nothing so to gain,
And, turning penitent upon their track,
Economize their strength by flying back.
Ex-champion of Freedom, battle-lunged,
No more, red-handed, or at least red-tongued,
Brandish the javelin which by others thrown
Clove Sambo's heart to quiver in your own!
Confess no more that when his blood was shed,
And you so sympathetically bled,
The bow that spanned the mutual cascade
Was but the promise of a roaring trade
In offices. Your fingering now the trigger
Shows that you _knew_ your Negro was a nigger!
_Ad hominem_ this _argumentum_ runs:
Peace!-let us fire another kind of guns.
I grant you, friend, that it is very true
The Blacks are ignorant-and sable, too.
What then? One way of two a fool must vote,
And either way with gentlemen of note
Whose villain feuds the fact attest too well
That pedagogues nor vice nor error quell.
The fiercest controversies ever rage
When Miltons and Salmasii engage.
No project wide attention ever drew
But it disparted all the learned crew.
As through their group the cleaving line's prolonged
With fiery combatants each field is thronged.
In battle-royal they engage at once
For guidance of the hesitating dunce.
The Titans on the heights contend full soon
On this side Webster and on that Calhoun,
The monstrous conflagration of their fight
Startling the day and splendoring the night!
Both are unconquerable-_one_ is right.
Will't keep the pigmy, if we make him strong,
From siding with a giant in the wrong?
When Genius strikes for error, who's afraid
To arm poor Folly with a wooden blade?
O Rabelais, you knew it all!-your good
And honest judge (by men misunderstood)
Knew to be right there was but one device
Less fallible than ignorance-the dice.
The time must come-Heaven expedite the day!
When all mankind shall their decrees obey,
And nations prosper in their peaceful sway.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGCCHH XXIIJJKKLLMM NNAAOOPPNNQQXDRRSSSTTKKUUVVFFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111110111 0101010111 1101111101 010111111 11111111001 01011001 110101011 0101100101 011001111 110101101 110010111 1101010101 1101010111 1011010111 11010100101 0111110111 0101000111 010111101 1100110101 1111011111 10010011101 111110011 0111111111 011010001 0111010001 1101010101 010011001010 11111101010 11111 11110010111 1111111101 0111000101 1111110111 0101110011 1101010111 11111101 010100101 110101 1101010101 1111011 111101101 11000101111 0101010111 110101001 0101010111 1111001101 010010111 10010101 111111 11101011111 1101010001 1101110101 1111010101 11111111 010111001 1111111101 1100110001 0111101001 1111110101 0101001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,434 |
Words | 426 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 18, 12, 30 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 661 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 141 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 2:10 min read
- 164 Views
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"A Political Apostate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1647/a-political-apostate>.
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