If Anybody's Friend Be Dead by Emily Dickinson: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem If Anybody's Friend Be Dead that begins with:

509
If anybody's friend be dead... 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: X XaXX XXaX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1 01000101 010001 0101111000 11110100 1010011 1100010 01111110 1001000 11101101 11110100 1111010 1100100010 111011110 110101 111100010 11100110 110100010 100000010 11010011 1101010 11110000 1101110 1101110000 10000101
  • Amount of stanzas: 7
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 118
  • Average number of words per stanza: 19
  • Amount of lines: 25
  • Average number of symbols per line: 32 (medium-length strings)
  • 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; past is repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word past is repeated.

    The author used the same word how 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 If Anybody's Friend Be Dead;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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