A Gentle Echo on Woman by Jonathan Swift: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem A Gentle Echo on Woman that begins with:

Shepherd. Echo, I ween, will in the woods reply,
And quaintly answer questions. Shall I try? ... 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: aaabbccbbcccdddccddcceebbeeffddddggg
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 36,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 101011000101 1101010111 101 101111110001 101 101111011101 1001 101111011011 1001 101111011101 1001 100101011111 1010 1011110111110 1010 101111011001 1001 1011111111010 101010 101111111111 101 101111110001 1001 101111110001 1001 101101111111 101 100101110111 101 1010110111110 1010 1001110100010 1010 101101011101 1100110101 10101
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 1812
  • Average number of words per stanza: 231
  • Amount of lines: 36
  • Average number of symbols per line: 49 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 6

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The speaker asks many questions. Perhaps, he or she is in confusion.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; , echo, her, be, she, wind, bang are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines try, before, her, under, kind, cross, wind, blows, well are repeated).

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

  • summary of A Gentle Echo on Woman;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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