The Great Society by Robert Bly: poem analysis

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

Dentists continue to water their lawns even in the rain:
Hands developed with terrible labor by apes ...

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: abbcc dXXcb daXcc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 5,5,5,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: rondeau
  • Metre: 100100101110001 101001001011 100100100 1110100111110100 01000111000010110 01001101010 100110100100100 01011001010 10110100111 1100110101 01011011110010 101111010110 1010101010111 101001 10101001001
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 249
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 15
  • Average number of symbols per line: 49 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, over are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word the at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

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

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Robert Bly

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