This is an analysis of the poem Cape Stiff that begins with:

Cruel is the sea, and the hardest thing of all
Is her taking and her leaving, and the way it seems to fall,...

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: aaab ccXX b ddde ddde fXfb gggb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,1,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 100011010101 001010101010101 1110011110101 111101110 101010011011 11110101010111 11100101000111 1 111101110 011111110100 010101011111 11010101111101 1111011010 01111110111 0101011110111 01111111111101 111001110 1110111001101 10100111010110 00110111011101 111101110 111101010011 10101111111101 11111011111 111001110
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 209
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 26
  • Average number of symbols per line: 47 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 10
  • 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 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 Cape Stiff;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Cicely Fox Smith