This is an analysis of the poem On The Big Horn that begins with:

THE years are but half a score,
And the war-whoop sounds no more... 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: aaabbaccdeedccdaadffghhgbbahhaiiXhhXaabbbbjjahhajjkggk
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 54,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: limerick
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 0011101 1011111 0010101 1000101 0011101 10100101 1101101 1100101 1010101 1000101 1110111 1001001 0110101 11101001 11101101 0101101 1100111 1010111 1100111 10101111 1010101 10111101 101001011 1100111 0101101 0110101 1101101 1011111 1110111 0100101 0111101 010111 10100101 1000101 0100101 1100101 0111101 0100101 11101001 10100101 01001001 1101111 01101001 1110111 1110111 011011010 11101010 111101 1101101 1101001 1111111 1111101 0100101 1100101
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 1756
  • Average number of words per stanza: 338
  • Amount of lines: 54
  • Average number of symbols per line: 32 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 6
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, and, o are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of On The Big Horn;
  • 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 Greenleaf Whittier