This is an analysis of the poem The Hand In The Dark that begins with:

How calm the spangled city spread below!
How cool the night! How fair the starry skies!... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef fgfg gcgc haha bbbb dgdggigi fdfd ejej gege dada eded hkhk ilil ghgh lglg bfbfhXhj kbkb hjhj lglg dbdb hghg gfgf fmfm agag baba hhhh nXnh fbfb odod jljl afaf fpfp fqfq hjhjhhhh eeee fifi ilil nfnf amam llll kbkb fofo gbgbjgjg bhbh bg
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,3,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,8,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1101010101 1101110101 1101010111 1101110101 1101010101 01001110101 1011010101 0101011111 0110111101 01001011111 1111111101 01001110100 1111110101 1111111101 1101011101 1111111101 1110011111 1011010111 1111010101 1101010111 1110010011 1111111101 1101110101 1001110111 110100101001 100100010101 0111010111 0100010101 0111010101 01010100111 1011011101 0101000101 1101000101 1011110101 1111010001 1101010101 1101100111 1101010111 1111011111 1111111111 1111111111 0110111101 1101110101 1101010101 1110110111 1101110111 1111010101 1001011101 1111110001 1101110101 0100010001 110110111 1111110101 0101000101 0101001101 1111111111 1011010111 11110100101 01001110111 1111001111 1001011011 1101010101 0111010101 0111001101 1111011101 0101010101 1101110111 11111111001 1111110111 11111111001 0101110111 1011110101 1101000101 0101010001 0111001101 1101010101 011100111 0101110100 1111110101 1101111101 1011110101 010100110001 0111111101 1101011101 0001010101 1011011101 1111010111 1111010101 0101111111 0111111101 1111111111 1011110111 1001101101 11011101010 0101110111 11110000110 1111011111 1111111111 1011110101 01110010111 10110101011 1001111011 1101110101 1101000111 0101011101 01110101001 1111000101 1111110101 1101110101 0111000101 0111110101 1111110111 11110101011 0111000111 0101000111 1111111111 1101010101 01110110111 1111111111 1011000101 1001010111 1001010001 1101111101 0101110001 1101011101 01001010110 11001111111 1111011111 1111111111 1011001101 1111100101 1111110111 0001110111 0111110111 1110110111 1101111101 1101001101 1101010101 0111010101 0011101111 1111010101 1111010101 1111010001 0101111101 0101110101 0111011101 1111111111 1111010101 1111111101 1111010101 11111111001 1111000101 11011101111 1111111101 1111010101 1111111111 1101010101 11011101001 1111010111 0111010101 011110111 11010010111 11101101101 1101110101 1111110111 11010010101 0101010001 1110111101 1111110111 11001011101 1111000101 1111111111 1011100111 1101111101 01011101111 11010011101 1101011101 1001111101 1111110111 1001011101 10010010101 1111010101 1001010111 0101000101 1101010001 1111010101 0101110011 1101111111 1101010101 1101111111 1101010101 1111101100 1101011101 1111110101 1111010101 1101011101 1111110011 1101011101 0111111111 1011110111 1111011111 1101011101 11111111001 0101010111 11110111010 01111001101 11011101110 0111010101 1101000111 0111001101 11001111101 1111011101 1001110111 1001010111 0111010001 0101110111 1101010101 0101111101 1001010101 0101000101 1011010111 1110001101 01010011001 1111111111 11010101001111110101 0101010111 1111101011 1101100001 0100101101 1111110111 1111111101 1111010110 0101110101 1111011111 0111111011 1000011101 0111110111 1001010111 1111011111 1111011101 1011010011 1111111100 1111010101 1101011111 1101010101 1111111101 1111111111 1111011111 0101111101 01010011010 0101001111 1101000101 0101011101 1101110111 1111000101 1101010101 1111101110 0101110011 0101110101 1101010001 0101001101 010111101 1101011111 1111010001 10111100111 10100100101 0101111111 1101010101 0111010101 01001110001 0111111101 0110010001 1111110111 0101100011 1111111111 0101010101 1001110101 1101011101 1011010111 0111010101 1101011111 0101110101 01010101001 1111010100 1111111101 11001010010 1111110111 10010111110 0101010101 01110111110 0101110111 1111010111 1101000111 0111011111 1101000111 1101011111 1011111001 1111011101 1111111111 1111011111 1101110111 1111011111 0111111101 0111011101 1101011101 1111110000 1111010101 1111010101 1101110101 10111100111 1101110111
  • Amount of stanzas: 72
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 192
  • Average number of words per stanza: 36
  • Amount of lines: 321
  • Average number of symbols per line: 43 (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; how, and, i, these, can, of, to, my, me, she, her, thy, our, peace, for, must, not, we, no, may, who, this are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words how, i, her, the, what, a, thou, because, no, thy, and, to, this, my are repeated.

    The author used the same words poor, what, just, we, 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 Hand In The Dark;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Ada Cambridge