This is an analysis of the poem Choriambics that begins with:

Love, what ailed thee to leave life that was made lovely, we thought, with love?
What sweet visions of sleep lured thee away, down from the light... 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: aa aa bb cc bb dd dX ee bb cc ff
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11101011111101101 1110011101100101 1110011011110101 1111011001100101 11100111111001001 1110011001101101 1111011011100111 1110011001100101 1110011101101111 1110011011101101 1010011111101111 1010111011111111 1110011011100101 1110011111110100 1010011101100111 1110111101101111 1110011011101101 1010011001110111 1110011011101111 1010011111100101 1110111010111101 1110111011101101
  • Amount of stanzas: 11
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 146
  • Average number of words per stanza: 27
  • Amount of lines: 32
  • Average number of symbols per line: 50 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 10
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; what, that, for, death, of, love are repeated.

    The author used the same word ah 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 Choriambics;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne