This is an analysis of the poem A Reading Of Life--The Test Of Manhood that begins with:

Like a flood river whirled at rocky banks,
An army issues out of wilderness,... 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: aaaaaabcbccb dXed afafeeggee hhbbgg ijjiffbbccaaeehh eehhkk Xfaflflflfmm eeffjjbb fXfeeeee eeeegnng lhhmXXehehcbXbogog beebleeloeoX ababfeaeaeaefllfpfpflelefaaffafa fffffflXlagffgXeef cffcbbbbbb hXqXhXfh affarbbr XhheebXe dedXeqXqfhhXhf heehfeeflcclXfhhff
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 12,4,10,6,16,6,12,8,8,8,18,12,32,18,10,8,8,8,14,21,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 1011011101 1101010100 0101010101 0100010111 1101110101 1011011101 1111010101 0101110111 1111010111 010101001011 1101010111 0100010101 11011100101 01001001100 01011100101 0101011011 11000010101 0010010011 1001100001 0101010001 11111100101 0101111111 1101110101 0111010001 0101010111 1101101101 0110100101 1111100101 0111011111 0101110001 01010101001 1101010111 1101010011 0101110111 010000 010101 1101110011 0101110101 11010101101 0101010001 0101010101 0101010101 0111010101 1101010001 1001010101 1111001111 010010001001 1101011111 1101010101 11010111011 100010010101 01110010001 1101010101 01010111001 0101010101 0101001101 011101 110111 1101010101 01110100101 10010000101 0101011101 100101 1111011 11110100010 01011111010 0111010101 0101011101 1001011101 1111011101 0101010111 1011000101 1011011101 1101010101 1011000111 01010101000 0100110101 01011101101 11011100101 0101010101 0010101111 1101010101 1101010101 0111010101 0101011001 1101010101 1001010011 0101000101 1101010101 1100110101 1001110101 1101010101 11001010101 11010001010 01010100100 1101010110 110101001 01000110111 0111010101 1111010111 1101010001 0101010101 11010010100 1111001101 1001011101 0101000101 01010101101 0101100101 01001011101 1101110101 0101010101 0101100101 0101000101 0100110101 0101011101 11111111010 1111010101 1111010101 1100010101 010000100100 0101010101 0101010111 0101010001 1100011110 01001100101 111110101 1001010101 0100011101 1100011011 0111100101 0111110100 0011010001 1101110101 01010101101 1101010101 0101001001 0100010101 0100010111 0100010111 1101010101 1100010101 11000100101 0101100001 1101010101 100010011 01011100101 1001011101 0111010101 0110010101 1101010001 110101 111101 1011010001 0101010101 0111011101 100110011 1101110110 11111101011 1110010011 1101110101 1100100111 1111110101 110110001 0110010100 1110011011 1011010101 0101010011 1001011111 0101010101 0101111101 0101011001 0101010101 100100101001 0100010011 1111110001 1101110101 1001011101 0101110101 0101010101 1111010110 1010110001 1101010001 1111010101 0011010111 1111010101 0110010101 0111010111 1111001101 1101010101 1101110001 0101010101 1111010111 1001100101 0111011101 1101110001 11010100111 1100010101 1111010101 11010111111 0100110101 1111111101 0011011001 1000110110 1101110101 1101011011 1101000101 1001010111 11011101000 1111010111 0111010101 1100011110 1111011101 1111110101 0101010101 1101110101 0101111001 1101110111 0101100101 11010010011 11110010101 0110010001 0001010100 01010011101 0101110101 1101011101 0101110111 1101110111 0100010101 1101110101 0101011101 11010100101 0101010101 1001011101 1101010111 0101010111 0100110101 01110101001 01001010101
  • Amount of stanzas: 21
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 480
  • Average number of words per stanza: 85
  • Amount of lines: 238
  • Average number of symbols per line: 41 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 7
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; his, to, in, her, she, this, he, of are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words in, her, what, a, this are repeated.

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

  • summary of A Reading Of Life--The Test Of Manhood;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by George Meredith