This is an analysis of the poem If You Must Ask Me that begins with:
If you ask me, 'what have you done with your life'
then I must tell you......
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: Xa bcdb cef ghigd XXjbikj lXbXbjlg Xkkffg bj mj bb kb cbi jb llj gn N e N Xo N ln kgn jl jmh oj jo lj k ljX nbjmmk kembojc bel lj XXXljX jeble mo lGeGhm agnllb lekkge na X
- Stanza lengths (in strings): 2,4,3,5,7,8,6,2,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,1,1,1,2,1,2,3,2,3,2,2,2,1,3,6,7,3,2,6,5,2,6,6,6,2,1,
- Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
- Сlosest rhyme: rondeau rhyme
- Сlosest stanza type: tercets
- Guessed form: unknown form
- Metre: 011111110110 11111 11110011110 1111010101001 111101101001101 1101101111101001 11110010101011 0111110010101001010010010 1110101001100100 1111011110 1111111 1111001101 1111000 01101111111 111101011 11111010 11101001111101 111101111111011 111111000101 1010110111 01101111111011 111101011011 111001110 111101001 1011001101 11110101101 11001101111101100 11101101 11010010010 1010101111011011 1101100101111 01100111101 011000110 110010100010110110 0110111110101111010 11101001110 10100110 1111011111 110 0010111011011 10111011011 1111111 11111110010101001 110111001 10100010101101 0101101101011 1110011100101 110001 0110110101000110 111010111110110111 1100101011100 01000101010010 1111000100111010 111 0111000111110 111 10111001 1010111001 111 0011111 1101 0011111101 101000100110 11001 001111 1110100100111 001111001 0101010110001001 10111110001011001 10010111100101 111001101 11101011011 11001011001 11110111 11101111101111010011 01001010010001110101 01110111110101001 011110110100010 111011 1010010100 1001111100101 11111 1001001011110011011001 111101 1110110 0111010110 0111011010010 110011001110101 0111111111 1011111 11111011 11101011101 10011001 1101100101 1110011010 0111011101 111111 11100110 101100 111011010 1111110 1110110010 11010111101 11011010011 11101111011011 11001 111 11110000110 001101001 11110000101101 111001101010100 101010110010 11110100100010 101010110010 1010110100110100 0001111 1110111 11010101110 1101011011 0101000101011 01001001011 0010101001 01010001111 01010011111 01111101001 01011011011101 101100100010 0110111 1111 111010101 010011010101010111011100
- Amount of stanzas: 41
- Average number of symbols per stanza: 139
- Average number of words per stanza: 29
- Amount of lines: 132
- Average number of symbols per line: 43 (strings are more long than medium ones)
- Average number of words per line: 9
Mood of the speaker:
The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.
The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; i, one, day, you, in, my, and, river, to, from, kill, limb, of, what, or, on are repeated.
The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words one, and, i, since, if, what, are, the, to are repeated.
The author used the same words one, in at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.
There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines food is repeated).
If you write a school or university poetry essay, you should Include in your explanation of the poem:
- summary of If You Must Ask Me;
- central theme;
- idea of the verse;
- history of its creation;
- critical appreciation.
Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!
Pay attention: the program cannot take into account all the numerous nuances of poetic technique while analyzing. We make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability and suitability with respect to the information.
