The Other by Anne Sexton: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Other that begins with:

Under my bowels, yellow with smoke,
it waits....

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

The information we provided is prepared by means of a special computer program. Use the criteria sheet to understand greatest poems or improve your poetry analysis essay.

  • Rhyme scheme: aBcBDDbXcefXfcfgcbXXcaecXfdcb g X Xe
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 29,1,1,2,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: rima
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 101101001 01 10111110 01 0010 0010 10100011011 1010001100110 11110111 01101 10101110101 0011011011 1111011110010 001101100111 1101011011 110111011101 11011111 11110111 011110011 011111101 011111 011110101 111100010 1010 00010 01010010 1110110101 0101010010 0101001011 1111 10 0100010
  • Amount of stanzas: 4
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 247
  • Average number of words per stanza: 47
  • Amount of lines: 33
  • Average number of symbols per line: 29 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 6

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; my, other, cries, when, i, and are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words it, mr, my, the are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines waiting is repeated).

If you write a school or university poetry essay, you should Include in your explanation of the poem:

  • summary of The Other;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Anne Sexton

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