Oh my lord almost the entire thing is a series of devises, especially irony.
A very obvious example you'd be advised not to use: the irony of Romeo's sacrifice, drinking the poison to be with his love, only to be the cause of her demise. Very poetic.
Another example of irony: The Montague's and Capulet's determination to keep their children safe from the other family, only to drive them both to their graves through increasingly hateful acts.
Honestly the entire story is riddled with irony. Pick a situation where a character makes a choose that ends up doing the oppositite of what they intended.
Wan is the word that most closely means "faint and suggestive of unhappiness". :)
Answer:
The man was about to be hanged.
Explanation:
Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" tells the story of how a convicted man was about to be hanged on the railroad bridge. The man, Peyton Farquhar, was a plantation farmer who was accused of trying to burn down the bridge during the Civil War.
The lines/ excerpt given in the question is from the first paragraph of the story which shows Peyton waiting for his death. The author/ speaker of the story is describing the scene and setting of the story, the exact point where we see Peyton (yet unnamed) waiting for the rope to be pulled which will finalize his death.
