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

By the Nile, the sacred river,
I can see the captive hordes,... 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: ababccbb dedeffXe dcdcXdXc ghghddXh ijijXjij fXfcbbXc jdjdkkXd bXgjjbg ababjjXX gdgdllad jhjhaaah fcfcaadcdbXbggdb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 8,8,8,8,8,8,8,7,8,8,8,16,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 10101010 1110101 10101110 1011001 10101110 10101110 01101111 101 11101010 10100111 10011010 11101001 10111010 10101110 10011000 101 00101110 1000101 11101110 1010101 11101100 10001010 10101010 101 11101110 0010111 101010110 1110111 10110010 00101110 11001010 101 11101010 1110101 01111010 1011111 11101100 11111110 10001010 101 11101010 1000110 10101010 1110101 00101010 10001010 10101100 101 10101010 0110101 11101110 0010101 10101110 00101010 10101010 101 10101010 00101010 1010101 11101110 10101010 10101010 111 11101010 0010111 10101110 1110101 10111010 00101010 10101110 100 11101010 0010111 10111110 1011101 100101111 10111011 10100010 101 10101110 1010101 10101110 1011101 10111010 00101010 01011010 101 10111110 1000101 10101010 0011101 00101110 11101010 10101010 101 111010110 1001101 10001110 1000101 10101010 101001110 00101010 111
  • Amount of stanzas: 12
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 249
  • Average number of words per stanza: 46
  • Amount of lines: 103
  • Average number of symbols per line: 28 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 5
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

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

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word i is repeated.

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

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Archibald Lampman