This is an analysis of the poem Colonel’s Toast, The * that begins with:

‘May the Lord love us and not call for us Too Soon’
Unto the little child whose happy heart... 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: a baba caca dada eaea baba dada X
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,4,4,4,4,4,4,1,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: limerick
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 101111111111 1001011101 0101110111 1111011101 1111011111 0101001101 1111010101 1101100101 1101010111 10001110011 1101010101 1101110111 0101110111 1111010011 1011110101 1111111111 0111111001 1101011101 1101011111 1111010100 0111001111 0101011001 1100111111 1111111111 1101111111 101001001
  • Amount of stanzas: 8
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 157
  • Average number of words per stanza: 29
  • Amount of lines: 26
  • Average number of symbols per line: 48 (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; and, too, soon, to are repeated.

    The poet repeated the same word soon 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 Colonel’s Toast, The *;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Ina D. Coolbrith