This is an analysis of the poem The Old Man's Calendar that begins with:

OFT have I seen in wedlock with surprise,
That most forgot from which true bliss would rise...

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: aabbccddaabbaaeX aaffaabbggddhhiiaa Xajjbbbbffffddkkllbbhhffhh ffbbffeemm bbXekkffiikkaaiiffff nnddcciioo hhffkkiiXXaabbffaabbbb aahh hhffbbii bbjjXbjXeeccddppbb aaccbbkkkkiikkffhh hhhh ccjjccmmeebbccjjkkoohhllbb kkjjffoo eehhbbbbaahhaajjbbeehh ffmmmmooll
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 16,18,26,10,20,10,22,4,8,18,18,4,26,8,22,10,6,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 1111011001 1101011111 1101010001 0101010101 1101110101 1101110101 1101011101 11001011101 1101010111 1111011101 0101110001 1111010011 0101010101 1101010110 1100011101 0101001110 1001010101 0101111111 0101010101 01100110101 0101010101 011110001 1101111101 1101010101 1111010101 1111001111 100010001 0101000111 1101110101 1101010101 0101011101 1101011101 1011110111 1101111101 1001010101 11010110010 1001110101 0101110101 01010111001 0100110101 1101000111 011010101 1001111101 1101010101 11010101101 1101011111 1111010101 1101110001 1111010101 1111110101 1101011101 0111011101 1100110101 1101011111 1101010001 01001001101 0101011101 1101110101 110101111 1101010101 0101111101 10100010111 1101011101 1101110101 1101011101 0101011101 1101110111 1101110111 1101010101 0100010101 0001011101 1101010101 1111010110 1111110101 100010101 0101011101 0101000101 1001010111 0111110101 1111010111 1100010101 1111010001 1101111101 1101010001 1101010101 1101011111 0111011101 0101010011 1111011111 1101010101 0101010101 0101010101 1100011101 1101010101 1101111111 0101010101 1101010111 1111001101 1101110101 0101010101 1101011111 1100011111 1101000101 1101110101 0101111111 0101011100 1101111101 01101000111 01001110010 11001010101 1110110011 0101010101 1001110101 1101010101 1101010001 0101110001 1100110111 1101011101 0101010101 1001110101 1111000101 1001001101 01001000101 1101110101 01010010111 1101010111 1101010101 11011100101 1101110111 0101010101 0110010101 1101110101 0111011011 0101110101 0101001101 011100101 1101110101 0101010111 01010101100 1101110111 0111110001 10110111010 1100011111 0111111101 1001010111 1101110011 1101010101 1101010101 0101010111 0101110101 1111100101 1101001101 0101110101 1101011001 11111100111 0111010101 1100111101 1101010001 0101010111 0111010001 1101111111 11101010101 1110111111 1111010101 0111010111 1101110101 0001011101 1101010101 0111011010 0100011111 1110010111 1101010101 1001010101 0111011101 0001010101 0101011101 0111110101 1101110011 1111011101 1110010101 0101010101 1001010111 1101111111 0101010110 0111110101 1111110111 0111111101 1111110111 1111011101 1101110111 0001010111 1111110111 1111010111 1100110001 1111110101 0101010101 1100010001 1101011101 1111110101 1101010111 1111010101 0111010100 0101110101 0100110101 0101010011 0111010101 01111101101 0110110111 1111011110 0111110011 1100010011 1101000110 1101111101 0111011101 11110100101 0111110111 1100010111 1111111101 0101111101 0101010101 1011010101 1101110001 1001011111 0101100111 0111000111 1101001100 1111010111 1101111101 1011110101 0101010101 100010111 1101010111 0111011101 0111110101 1111010101 1100010101 0111110001 10111010101 01010111001 1101110101 010101011 1111011101 1001010101 0101110110 0111011101 1101011101
  • Amount of stanzas: 17
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 620
  • Average number of words per stanza: 112
  • Amount of lines: 246
  • Average number of symbols per line: 42 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; to, in, and, he, his, i, thou, thee, with are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words at, i, in, to are repeated.

    The author used the same words quinzica, the at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of The Old Man's Calendar;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Jean De La Fontaine