This is an analysis of the poem Answers that begins with:

What is the end of each man's toil,
Brother, O Brother?... 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: aBaaaccddB aBaeeffaaB cBcffddffB eBegghhiiB jBjbbffccB
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 10,10,10,10,10,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 10010111 10110 0110100101 0101011001 1100011101 101010111 010101111 1010111001 00111 10110 1100101011 10110 011101111 0011011111 001001101001 1100101111 11100110111 1111101101 1101 10110 1101101001 10110 10100111 1000101111 0100110101 01101011001 0100100101 1011001001 111010 10110 1100111111 10110 10100110111 10101001010 101001001110 011100111 1110100101 1010110100 11001 10110 1100111001 10110 0100101111 101101001010 01011011110 10100101101 01011011001 1110101111 1011 10110
  • Amount of stanzas: 5
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 348
  • Average number of words per stanza: 69
  • Amount of lines: 54
  • Average number of symbols per line: 31 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • 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; of, and, he, his, brother are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words he, brother are repeated.

    The author used the same word and at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

    The poet repeated the same word brother at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of Answers;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox