This is an analysis of the poem Sappho To Phaon (Ovid Heroid Xv) that begins with:

Say, lovely youth, that dost my heart command,
Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand?... 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: aabbccddeeccccccbbeeXcffffgghhccccffXXccggiieeaahhbbffjjiiaahhggiiaacceeccggiiccddkcaaccbbggcceeeellcchhkkbbccddaabbXXbbhhddaaddaaeeggccccffggiihhcceemmcchheebbccbbXeffhhdXeehhee ddbbkkaaeellbbaaeedXccbbcciiddeeeddffhXhhhhhhiinnffddccjjeejjccbbffcccccchhc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 178,79,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 1101111101 111010101 1101010101 0101011011 1101111101 0101010101 1111010101 1111010001 1111111101 1101010111 101010101 11010111010 1111010101 1011011101 1101011111 1101101101 11010011101 1011001101 1101110101 1101000111 1111110110 1101110101 0111111101 010101101 1101011101 110101101 1101110101 1101110101 1101111101 1111010101 0101111101 1011100101 1110110001 1101010101 1101010101 1101110101 0111010110 0111110110 1111011101 0101110101 11111101001 010110000101 1011010111 1101010101 0011111101 1111011101 1101111101 10111101 1111011101 1001110111 1101010101 1111010011 1101111101 1111010011 1101010101 1111010111 0111110111 1011110101 10111111010 11011111010 1101000111 101100100101 0110011101 11111101001 11010100111 1101111101 1001110101 1101010101 1111100101 1101011101 1101011101 1101011110 0101001100 1101011101 1101010111 1001000101 1101011101 1101010111 0111110101 1101110011 1111010101 11110100101 1111010101 01010001001 1101010101 1101000101 1111011111 11110101001 1011110101 1011110101 1011010111 1101011101 1111010101 1101110011 1111111111 1111111001 1101010011 1011010101 1111001011 1110010101 1011111001 1111110101 1101110101 1101110001 1011110011 1011110001 0111000101 1111011011 1111111101 0111011101 1111011101 1101110101 11110011111 11011111001 1101110101 1111111101 1101110101 1111011100 1111111111 1001001111 1101110111 1101110111 1111011101 1101111101 1111110111 1111111101 1101111101 1001010001 11011010101 1111011111 1111111101 1101110101 1101010101 1111010101 1101000101 0111110011 0101010111 1101110111 10111100001 1111011101 1111100101 1101011111 1111111101 1101011111 1111010101 1101110101 1101010101 0111100011 1111010111 1110110101 0101011111 0101010111 1101110101 1111011111 1101010101 1111011111 1011010101 1111010101 1101111101 1101110101 1001011101 1111010111 1101110101 0101010101 11110101100 1101010101 1101111101 111110111 1011010101 1101010111 1111111111 1101010110 1101010101 1101111101 1101110101 1101010011 0101001111 010101101 00110110101 1101010101 0101010101 1101110101 0101010101 1101010001 1111110101 0111010101 1111111101 1111011001 1101010101 1001010101 1101010001 1101010101 1001010101 1111010101 1101110001 1001110101 11010101001 1101110110 1111000111 1101110011 1111111101 1111111111 11111100101 11110101110 011111011 1101110101 1101011101 1101110101 1111110101 11111111001 110101010101 1101111101 1001010101 1111011001 10010100001 1101010101 0101010110 1101010111 0101110101 1111111100 1101010101 1111100111 1111011111 1111010101 1111101101 0111011111 111110101 0101011101 10011110011 1101010101 1101010101 110010111001 1011110011 1111011111 11111101001 111111101 111101111 0111011101 1011110011 10010101010 11110101010 1111111101 1101110101 0111111101 0101110101 1101110101 0111011101 0101111101 110111011 1111010101 1011110101 1101111110 1101111101 010111111 1111000101 0101100101 1101011101
  • Amount of stanzas: 2
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 5654
  • Average number of words per stanza: 1039
  • Amount of lines: 257
  • 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; i, by, my, each, to, and, no, from are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words my, o, i, then, a, and, no, the are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of Sappho To Phaon (Ovid Heroid Xv);
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Alexander Pope