This is an analysis of the poem El Mahdi To The Australian Troops that begins with:

And wherefore have they come, this warlike band,
That o'er the ocean many a weary day ... 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: abbaccdeeddd bffbXX ghhgii
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 12,6,6,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 11001110111 110010100101 111101101 0101110111 1001010001 10010100111 0101010101 0101110011 01011100101 0100010101 0101000101 1001110101 1101010001 0101010101 1001010101 11010101001 1101010011 010101000101 0111011101 100100100111 1101011111 0100010101 0101110101 1101010001
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 355
  • Average number of words per stanza: 61
  • Amount of lines: 24
  • Average number of symbols per line: 44 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • 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 is repeated.

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

    The author used the same word and 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 El Mahdi To The Australian Troops;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Banjo Paterson