This is an analysis of the poem To The Lacedemonians that begins with:

An old soldier on the night before the veterans
reunion talks partly to himself, partly to imaginary comrades:...

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 bcbdbbd cd eafgffh cc afaigbjgeb fa bbkbaalfcgljk kgbka gggbddbl cfhdbjabjb mm gfgf dcdc alal bgbg jijiXgggg
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 2,7,2,7,2,10,2,13,5,8,10,2,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1110101010100 0101100011000101011 0101001111 10110011 001011010 10111111 1001101 00101101010 111010111 1110010001 011110111 00010000111 101110011 010011001 011010001 111100101 0101100011 10111 111001 010100 1001100 01011101001 1010110110 11011010110 11010111101 0100010101 01010010111 111010101101 1001011111 10110101010 1110111110 11110010010 11011101110 0011010101 1111110111 001010011 1110101101 11011110101 1101011101 101111110 100100100100 110001001 0101000101 100111100 11110 1110 1111011110 11111110 01001010 101 1101 1101111111 0111110101 0101011100 011111101 1110000101 1110100110 1111011 11 10110111110 10111111011 11010101110 10001111001 1001010001 101001110 101001001010 1110101 110010001 10110010011 1010111 101110111 1101011101 1011010001 1100001000 1011011101 1101011001 1000010011 01100100001 0011111001 1101010011 1101110111 0101110101 101111101 0100111111 1111000101 1011010001 1101011011 100111001010 1010000111 11010001010 1101001011 1001110001 11100101 0001010001
  • Amount of stanzas: 18
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 203
  • Average number of words per stanza: 38
  • Amount of lines: 94
  • Average number of symbols per line: 38 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 7
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

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

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words i, there are repeated.

    The author used the same word waken 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 To The Lacedemonians;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Allen Tate