This is an analysis of the poem A Nation's Test that begins with:

I.
A NATION'S greatness lies in men, not acres; ...

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: abbbbXXcd efefeaea bgbgchch Xacac acacgg XffeegXggXXiiddggbbggjjaahh Xbbdbbd kkgghhgfgfkdkd agdgXgigiabaX alglg mgmg fhfh dnXn hbhb gXgglhXh XeXe XaaaXegegbhbh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 9,8,8,5,6,27,7,14,13,5,4,4,4,4,8,4,13,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1 01010101110 1101010101 11011101010 1101010101 010100111100 1001110100 01011111010 1101110111 11111101010 1011010101 01010101110 1111011101 111101001010 0101110101 11000111010 0101011111 10011101010 1111000101 11010101010 1101010101 01010011010 1111101000 10111101010 11010010101 1 1101110101 11110010111 0101011100 1111110001 111111 11111 1111111 11101 001011011011 001001001001 1 111010111010101 101010101010101 10101001010101101 111111101110101 101011101100101 101010001010111 10110101110101 101010101010111 101010111010001 101010111110110 111010101010101 1001110101010101 101010101110001 111011101011111 101000101011101 101010111110101 111110101010100 100010101000111 111100101110101 101110111011111 111100100010101 111111101001101 101100011110101 110111111011101 101110101011101 1010011001010101 1 100100111 0011100100 0010110101 0011100101 010010101 1100100101 110100100100 110100010100 1101001001 1001011011 101011101001 11001001001 110100100101 1101011101 10001001100101 1101101011 101100100100 1011011011 111110100100 1000101111 1 1101010101 1101110101 1111010111 11010010001 11110101011 0111011101 0101010011 0101010101 1011110101 111101111 1101011101 1011110110 1 1111010101 11111111010 1111111101 11110100110 1111111001 1101110101 1101010111 1101100111 1001011101 0111010001 1101110001 11010110101 11011101010 1101011101 11011111010 1001110101 11111111010 1001110100 11010010010 1101010111 11111011010 0101010111 11111111010 0101010101 11011101010 0111110101 11001110111 0101000001 11010100010 1101110101 011101100100 1101111101 1 11011011011 11011100101 11111111011 1101011110 01110101010 11001110101 100011111010 0101110011 11111101010 1111010101 11010101010 1101111101
  • Amount of stanzas: 17
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 389
  • Average number of words per stanza: 71
  • Amount of lines: 149
  • Average number of symbols per line: 44 (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; and, of, when, her, life, thy, from, to, his, he, in are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words when, from, what, large, and, he are repeated.

    The author used the same word he at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

    The literary device anadiplosis is detected in two or more neighboring lines. The word/phrase burke connects the lines.

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

  • summary of A Nation's Test;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by John Boyle O'Reilly