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

“A soldier braving disease and death on
the battlefield has a seven times better chance ... 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: abXX cacaaadd dedffebb agaccghh XeXiieaa
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,8,8,8,8,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: ballad stanza
  • Metre: 0101001111 010110101101 0110111010100 1111 01010001 1101010 11010101 11000101 110010101 1101010 010010101 10010101 01010111 1100010 01010101 01011101 01011111 1100010 11011101 11011110 01010101 0101010 11010101 11101001 11110111 0101010 01010101 11010101 10110100 0100110 11100101 11011101 11011101 1101010 11000101 11110101
  • Amount of stanzas: 5
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 244
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 37
  • Average number of symbols per line: 32 (medium-length strings)
  • 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; no is repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word no 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 Hapless Army;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Edward George Dyson