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

There's a spirit on the river, there's a ghost upon the shore,
They are chanting, they are singing through the starlight evermore, ...

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: AaBA ccbc dded ffgf hhgh eeie jjXX jjhj jjXj jjbj iieX aaXa jjXX ccic bbXb ccfX jjhjXAaBA
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 101010101010101 111011101011101 11101010 1011001 111010101010101 11010101110111 11110101 010101 111010110010101 1010111010100111 10101010 1011011 111010101011101 001000101010111 10100011 1010101 101011100110100 101110101011101 11100110 1110100 111111111010101 1100101010111 10111010 0010101 1100110001110111 111010101110101 11110100 10101110 111010101011101 1000100101110101 10101010 1010001 100011101110001 101010111010111 10101011 1011001 1110101010110101 110110101110101 11111011 1011101 10110111011101110 1010101010101010 11101110 111011100 101010101010101 111010101010101 11101010 1111101 1000111010101111101 111111101110101 10101010 111110100 101101001011100 101110101110111 11111010 1111100 100011101110111 111110101100101 11111011101 1111 100010101011101 111001111110111 1001010 11111010 101011100010001 101010100010101 10101110 1111111 101010101010101 111011101011101 11101010 1011001
  • Amount of stanzas: 18
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 202
  • Average number of words per stanza: 35
  • Amount of lines: 72
  • Average number of symbols per line: 50 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 9
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; they, northern, and, their, her, who, listens, of, thy, loves, i, for, waiting are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words those, and, loves, for are repeated.

    The author used the same words you, and, dawendine 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 Dawendine;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Emily Pauline Johnson