This is an analysis of the poem The Boatswain’s Song that begins with:

A CHEER to keep our hearts up,
A cup to drown our tears, ... 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: abcbdeae ffdfghAh ghghciai ffXfdjaj XegekfAfXfekehjaj
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 8,8,8,8,17,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 0101111 010111 11101110 110100 0101010 111110 11101111 1110101 1111110 010101 1101010 110001 0111010 0101001 0101111 010111 0101110 110101 1111110 110101 1101011 111111 0101111 1110101 1111010 010101 11111110 1110101 00101010 0010111 1101111 1011111 11101010 0011101 1111010 110101 1101110 011101 0101111 111101 1111110 1011111 1111110 1011101 101101110 010101 10101111 1110111
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 249
  • Average number of words per stanza: 47
  • Amount of lines: 48
  • 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; our, as, and, we, of are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of The Boatswain’s Song;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton