This is an analysis of the poem My Adversary that begins with:

I had a comrade who was my adversary; not in pursuits, nor in service, nor
in love, but our views were never alike on any subject, and whenever we...

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: abX cX XXX dc X bc de fce X dcfX aeXc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 3,2,3,2,1,2,2,3,1,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 110111111010100110101 01111010011100110101 11010001011 11001101011101011001 1111010101000110101 110100110101011110111 11011011011101010010 1111101011 11001101111111100 1111101001001 11111001111101111 0010110111110100001 11 11111101010110110101 10111011001001111 111101111001110110 1011011111111110101 010101010 0100100101 1111111010101010 010101111101101011 10111011111010000 11011010101101111 1101001100101110101 1001100001001111 11110
  • Amount of stanzas: 12
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 133
  • Average number of words per stanza: 25
  • Amount of lines: 26
  • Average number of symbols per line: 61 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 12
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; in, and, about, you, i, or are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of My Adversary;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Ivan Turgenev