The Lover's Farewell by George Moses Horton: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Lover's Farewell that begins with:

And wilt thou, love, my soul display,
And all my secret thoughts betray? ... full text

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: aabb ccdd eeaa ffgg eXaa Xggaa
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,5,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11111101 11110101 11111111 11110111 010010001 11110101 11111101 10110101 11111101 11110001 11010101 11011101 111110110 110001010 11110101 01010011 11110111 11100110 01010101 11110101 11110101 11110101 11011101 11010101
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 146
  • Average number of words per stanza: 27
  • Amount of lines: 29
  • Average number of symbols per line: 30 (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, to are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word and is repeated.

    The poet repeated the same word away at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of The Lover's Farewell;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by George Moses Horton

Poems about...
✕