This is an analysis of the poem The War Of Inis-Thona that begins with:

Reflections on the poet's youth. An apostrophe to Selma. Oscar obtains leave to go to Inis-thona, an island of Scandinavia. The mournful story of... 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 a X X X a X X X X X a X X
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: sonnet with trochaic pentameter or irregular meter
  • Metre: 01010101101000101001101010101100101000101001111001100101010101001110101001000100101001 11010100101010111001100111000101011010111110011110110100110101001111010110101001011111101000101110111101010001010011010101111010101 101110110010110111101111010110100111101010011010111000100101001110100010011010100111010111010100010101011101010111001111011001110101 1001101010101011110111110101100101010101111001010111101001100111111111000100101010001011111101011111111111110101000101111111001110010111101101010001010 1100010101011111011011110010101100101010110111110010011101001011010101001010010111010101110010101110010011110010010001010000 1101010101101010111101010101011110001010111001010111010100101101011110101001010110100100111110010101010001011101011001001 1110010111110111001111101011011010011110111010101011110110101100100101101001110011110000101011001110111101110101010101010101010010 111100101011010101010100110101010010101010101010110100101101011010100101110011010010101111001011111111110111011111011011010010100 10010100110101010010111010111111011011011101111101111010111101010 1000001011001011011110100101110100111010100111010001011101011001101111101110100100110110011111001001010110111110111010111001011110010010111111111011100010101100101101010001010111100101010101110100100101011010111001001010101111110010100101111110111011101111111110111010110001111101010101111011101110101010001010101001011110101111111010 1110010101010010111100110101010011101010111010011000110110101010110 11100101101101100101110110100100101010101010011011010101000101010101010010111110110010101010101010110110101001010010100101010101110101 1110101011100101001011010111000110100010010111010010100101111010101101010101011010101010001010010110111011010110010101101001 11111101111011101100011010101100101110100101001100101011101010101111011100101101011101101001010101011101111011101001011010110101010001010101011101011110101001110100101111110111111111010101101010011010010111101001001101010111001111010111010101110001001001011001111001101010
  • Amount of stanzas: 14
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 602
  • Average number of words per stanza: 114
  • Amount of lines: 15
  • Average number of symbols per line: 563 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 106
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, in, his, to, he, youth, on, oscar, thy, my, and, sun, king, selma, with, when, wall, like, i, son, thou, tomb, not, bard, from, inis, morven, heroes, spears, sword, annir, song, distant, land, fingal, they, their, cormalo, came, argon, death, we, love, sons, runa, secret, at, who, said, children, over, this are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines swords is repeated).

    The poet repeated the same word swords 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 The War Of Inis-Thona;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by James Macpherson