This is an analysis of the poem Her Portrait that begins with:

Oh, but the heavenly grammar did I hold
Of that high speech which angels' tongues turn gold!... 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: aabbaaccddeeffggddXdffhh iiggcXXXXccdX eejjjaakkjjddeeggl ccaaffmmccnlgoX cnneppjj qqaaXhhaX hXllXnepeddXccjcjhheXcccaaXggccXXo ddnnaXeXnnnddgl hheeaaeeddddXnjj cXnXXmmaarrnnccX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 24,13,18,15,8,9,34,15,16,16,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 11010010011 0111110111 1101010111 100111011101 1011010101 1100010101 11100010111 101111010110 11010101010 11011100010 0101010101 1011010101 11011101101 110111100101 1100101111 101010011101 10001111110 11010111010 1101000110 11010001001 1011110101 1101010100 101101111 110111010101 01110110000 1101001101 101110100001 0100111101 1101001100 0100110100 1010010101 0101110001 0001011000 0001010101 0101010100 0011011110 000101010100 1001100011 110111011011 1001010101 110010101101 1101110101 10110100101 111101010101 1001011001 100111111101 1100110101 1100111101 1100100101 010111111101 11011110111 1101010101 1001100111 0001010101 1101110100 0111110001 0111000101 1011000101 010100010101 10010010011 1101010111 1111011101 0101000101 10010011011 01000010001 0111001101 11001101010 0111010001 11001010101 0101000100 1011000111 1101001101 1100011010101 1101011001 0010000100 1101010101100 1100001101 1100100101 1001010111 010001111 0011000101 1001110101 11000010100 01001001101 11010101001 00110100100 0100101110110 1111011111 1001000100 0111011000 01010100110 1111011110 0111010001 1101101101 1111000100 0101011000 00101110101 01010101001 1101010100 001101111 1111010100 1101010101 0101011111 101101110101 1101010001 1011000101 1011011100 111101010100 1110011101 1111110001 01101010101 1110010101 0101001101 0110010110 0101000101 110101010001 1111110101 0100010001 110101001000 1011100011 1011011101001 1111110101 0101010101 1111110111 1101010001 1111011101 1111111100 0100011001 0101001100 1111110101 11010101001 1101111101 1001010111 011101011111 1111010101 100101110000 1111110001 11010100101 11110100101 1111110101 1110010111 11100010001 0001111100 0111000111 0101110101 010111101101 1101010011 0101000101 11110101000 11001110001 1101010111 0101110101 1101010101 11110111100 1101010111 1101110111 0101011011000 11001111101 1100110010101 1101010001 11010101101 1101011111 1100110101 0101010001 1011010101 1110010111 1001010011 1001011000
  • Amount of stanzas: 10
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 726
  • Average number of words per stanza: 131
  • Amount of lines: 168
  • Average number of symbols per line: 42 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; how, her, to, all, and, it, have, of, there are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words how, to, what, the, and, there are repeated.

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

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

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Francis Thompson