This is an analysis of the poem An American Poem that begins with:

I was born in Boston in
1949. I never wanted...

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: abacXdeeaffghiiijXkehhbjbkiedljbbegdjmheennamodpajbbolmlboemfeenXelnmipiDabhmqafcqkjDehhlhjlehekaXlinaieeiflkobgeDhdjqXekqbagaaemhDiDfgehalnabjelbngakndccehhe
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 158,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1110100 111010 010010 111010 101101 1001110 010010 11011 11011 110100 001010 110011 010101 100100 00110 0110 010100 0101001 0101100 010010011 0011 111010 11010 101010 010101 0111000 1110 0101011 0101010 101000010 001010010 1010011 1111 1111 111001 10010 1111 111 1100 0111 110010 1101 10101 1010100 1001001 10011 011010 10101 11011 110010100 11111 1111 1101001 101010 1000101 110010 10101 1111 1010011 011001 1101 1111 11011 01010001 10001000 110001 101010 10011 0111 1001 1101 11111 110100 101001 01111 11101 010101 10100 101010 01000100 101110 00110 1011 1111 110100 1101 110 11010100 0101100 010110 101010 101101 0011 11111 10101 1011100 1111110 111010 11110 100111 1111 1011 101010 11011 010010 11101 0010100 11101 10011010 01101 0010011 1111001 1010111 110100 10110100 0101010 010010 11100 110100 1001111 10111 11010010 101101010 1110110 10010111 1010010 1001001101 110101 111111 01010101 0111010 10100001 0111010 1111 11101 1111 00100100 010101 10110010 0100010111 011101 1001 01010 0101 110 1101 0111 1011 1001101 111110 001101 1000100 111110 01110 01111 010101 111100 1111101
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 3486
  • Average number of words per stanza: 663
  • Amount of lines: 158
  • Average number of symbols per line: 21 (very short strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 4
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; in, like, to, them, that, i, normal are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words to, the, i, are, normal, alone are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines of, them, and, longer are repeated).

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

  • summary of An American Poem;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Eileen Myles