This is an analysis of the poem Psalm 142 that begins with:

God is the hope of the helpless.
To God I made my sorrows known,... 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 abab cdcd eaea eXeX fgfg eheh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: ballad stanza
  • Metre: 10010010 01111101 011101 01010101 111111 11110101 110101 11111101 110111 110011111 111101 11110111 010101 10110101 111101 101110111 01110100 11110101 111101 11111111 110101 01110111 111111 11011101 110001
  • Amount of stanzas: 7
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 108
  • Average number of words per stanza: 21
  • Amount of lines: 25
  • Average number of symbols per line: 29 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 6
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; god, my are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of Psalm 142;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Isaac Watts