This is an analysis of the poem Author's Apology For His Book that begins with:

WHEN at the first I took my pen in hand
Thus for to write, I did not understand... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aa bb cc dd ee cc fd gg gg bb bb df aa hh gg aa dd ii fd jj dd aa cc gg df gg kk dd cc XX hh cc hh ii gg ll bb hh cc jj mm ll nn hh ll cc bb bb ll aX jj cc aX cc nn kk gg hh nn dd aa dd oo aa nn dd gg nn nn bb jj cc nn aa ll nn hn aa ip aa hh gg hh aX dd
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,5,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1101111101 1101101101 1111110101 0101111101 0101011111 0111011010 1101110001 1101001101 11000011010 01110101010 0111011111 0111011011 1101010101 11100101011 1111011111 1111101111 11101001111 0111010101 1110111011 0101011111 0101110101 1111101101 1101110111 1001110101 1001110101 0011010101 1001110100 0101111101 1111010001 1101110111 1101110101 1111011111 0101011100 1111010111 11111111010 11010111110 1101010101 1111011101 1111010111 1101101011 1110011011 1101100111 11111111010 11001101010 1111111101 1100110111 011101101 1111010001 1101011001 1111010101 1011110011 0111000101 1110110101 1100011111 111101000 1001111101 0111111001 1101110101 111101010 1010011000 1111010110 0101011111 1110110101 1111010111 1111011101 1001011101 11011101110 11010111010 1110011011 1101000111 0111010101 1111111101 1101010111 0101110111 0111100101 1001110111 1110110111 1111110111 1101110101 110101010011 1101010101 1101111101 0101011111 1111111111 0101011101 0111001111 1111110010 1011111101 010110111 1101101101 0111010101 1100111001 11110000101 1111011101 1101110111 0001010101 0101111101 1101110101 10111110101 10110111010 110101001011 100010010111 111111111 1101010101 101110001111 101011001110 0100010101 0111010101 1111110001 1100110111 0101010111 1111110011 0101010011 0011011001 0101011101 1101111111 1111110111 1111110101 1100111001 1101111000 1111011001 1111001111 1110011100 1101000111 1111010101 1110101101 1111011111 0111001001 010111100 0111111010 1001011101 1100101100 1101011101 1101111111 0101110111 11010101101 0111110111 0111110101 1111000111 1111011011 1101011111 1001111111 1111010101 0011110101 1101110011 1101010101 1111010111 0101010101 1001010100 0101001011 0111010101 1101110001 1111100001 1111010001 1111111101 0101000111 1111110110 1101110101 1111111101 1101011111 1111000101 1111010101 1111011101 0111110101 11111110101 0011011101 1101110101 01001011000 0101011111 1001010111 010111111 0101110011 110111111 1101110101 1001111001 1101110001 11111111101 1011111101 1101010101 110110111 0101111101 0101001111 1101011111 1011111101 0111111001 1111110001 111110101010 11000101010 11111011010 10111111010 1101110101 1011011111 1101111111 1101001111 0111101011 1101111111 0101010111 0111010101 0111111011 1110110111 0101111111 1110010101 0111111110 1001011101 1101110101 1111011111 0101010001 010101110 0001100101 0110010101 1001010100 0110010101 11110111000 11110101010 11010101010 01110010010 1111010111 1100010100 0101010101 1101010101 0101001101 1011110101 11011001010 11010101010 11110111010 1101011010 1111011111 01101111101 1100011111 1110010111 111101111 1110010101 1110111111 1111011111 11001111110 11111111010
  • Amount of stanzas: 118
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 85
  • Average number of words per stanza: 17
  • Amount of lines: 236
  • 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; i, you, to, and, said, them, some, not, be, nor, his, he, of, that, it, by, in, they, thou, would'st are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words and, some, that, by, all, the, in, to, would'st are repeated.

    The author used the same words i, if, it, art, would'st 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 i connects the lines.

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

  • summary of Author's Apology For His Book;
  • 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 Bunyan