This is an analysis of the poem A Commuted Sentence that begins with:

Boruck and Waterman upon their grills
In Hades lay, with many a sigh and groan,... 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: abbabbbcbcdd ceecebbfbfdd eaaeXeeeeebX ghhghiijijXX edXXXkkhkhbb lbblbffgfgmm
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 12,12,12,12,12,12,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1011000111 01010100111 1001011101 0101010101 1101110101 1101010111 1001110001 1111010101 11011100101 1011000101 11010101010 110101001010 1001001101 1110010101 1100010111 1001000111 1101010111 1011000101 10110011111 11111010101 0100110101 1111000101 11010101010 101010001010 1100110111 0100011101 1011110101 1011000111 11010101110 1101111111 1101110111 0111110011 11010010101 1101010101 1110001011 001000100010 0101011101 1101110111 0111011101 0001010001 1001000101 1001010101 1101111101 1101001011 1101111101 0111000101 11001101010 111101001100 10111010101 01110010010 1111010101 11011101010 01111001110 110001001 1100111111 0101010001 1111110111 1101010101 01010011010 11010111010 1111010001 1111010111 1110110110 1101011101 1101001101 0111010001 1111110001 0100111101 1101001101 01110100101 110101100010 11010101010
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 504
  • Average number of words per stanza: 91
  • Amount of lines: 72
  • Average number of symbols per line: 41 (medium-length strings)
  • 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; and, his, to are repeated.

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

    The poet repeated the same word ' at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of A Commuted Sentence;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Ambrose Bierce