This is an analysis of the poem The Child Bearers that begins with:

Jean, death comes close to us all,
flapping its awful wings at us...

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: abccaXXdeXXX dddXafXfbead aaebbXdbdfX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 12,12,11,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1111011 10010111 10111111 1101001111 101101101010 110010010010 111110100 1100101001 1010101 1110101100 010001 1110111 1111110 11110 101000100101 11000111101 0101111 11101 10100 111011101 1011010 1101100 1101101 1011111 1110010100 11110111 110111 01111100111 0100101 1110001 11 0010100011 1110 111 11
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 359
  • Average number of words per stanza: 69
  • Amount of lines: 35
  • Average number of symbols per line: 30 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 6
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; for is repeated.

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

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines children, us are repeated).

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

  • summary of The Child Bearers;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Anne Sexton