The City by Constantine P. Cavafy: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The City that begins with:

You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.
Another city will be found, a better one than this....

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: XXXaaXbX cXccXaba
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 8,8,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1110010010110100101 01010001010110 100100100101001 111010110 11011010011 0101111010111 111100111 11111000101100 1011111011101 010010110101 11101001101 1101101110 111001001011111010 1011111011 11101111 00101011100000101
  • Amount of stanzas: 2
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 406
  • Average number of words per stanza: 79
  • Amount of lines: 16
  • Average number of symbols per line: 50 (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; another, i, my, you, same, in are repeated.

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

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Constantine P. Cavafy

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