The Ships He Served Of Old by Cicely Fox Smith: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Ships He Served Of Old that begins with:

The ships he served of old,
When blood was young and hot,...

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: abab cd XcaX ecec fgfg hchc idid
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,2,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: rima
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 011101 111111 111111 110101 011101 010101 010 100 11 100 110101 110111 011101 011101 1111001 110111 110111 1111001 011101 010111 110111 111110 010101 110101 011101 111111
  • Amount of stanzas: 7
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 97
  • Average number of words per stanza: 18
  • Amount of lines: 27
  • Average number of symbols per line: 24 (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 the is repeated.

    The author used the same word the 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 The Ships He Served Of Old;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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