Analysis of Hell
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
The friends who stood about my bed
Looked down upon my face and said:
'God's will be done-the fellow's dead.'
When from my body I was free
I straightway felt myself, ah me!
Sink downward to the life to be.
Full twenty centuries I fell,
And then alighted. 'Here you dwell
For aye,' a Voice cried-'this is Hell!'
A landscape lay about my feet,
Where trees were green and flowers sweet.
The climate was devoid of heat.
The sun looked down with gentle beam
Upon the bosom of the stream,
Nor saw I any sign of steam.
The waters by the sky were tinged,
The hills with light and color fringed.
Birds warbled on the wing unsinged.
'Ah, no, this is not Hell,' I cried;
'The preachers ne'er so greatly lied.
This is Earth's spirit glorified!
'Good souls do not in Hades dwell,
And, look, there's John P. Irish!' 'Well,'
The Voice said, 'that's what makes it Hell.'
Scheme | AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE XAA FFF CCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110111 11011101 11110101 11110111 111111 11010111 11010011 011111 11011111 0110111 11010101 01010111 01111101 01010101 11110111 01010101 01110101 1101011 11111111 01011101 1111010 11110101 01111101 01111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 839 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 80 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
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"Hell" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1800/hell>.
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