For What It Was. And What It Is by Lawrence S. Pertillar: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem For What It Was. And What It Is that begins with:

All day,
The people are praying......

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: ABCC AdEC fGG fGGEE FGGEEGGEEFeEEFGGeEABCCF hAdECifGGifGGh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,3,5,23,14,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11 010110 01010 10101 11 0101010 1101 11110 11010111 1101 1100 1010011 1101 1100 1101 010100 1011111 1101 1100 1101 010100 1101 1100 0101 010100 1011111 1 0101 010100 101110011 1101 1100 1101 010100 11 010110 01010 10101 101110011 1 11 0101010 1101 11110 11 101010111 1101 1100 11 101010111 1101 1100 00101
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 182
  • Average number of words per stanza: 33
  • Amount of lines: 53
  • Average number of symbols per line: 20 (very short strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 4

  • Mood of the speaker:

    There are many three dots in the poem. Readers should think of the author's idea together with the pensive speaker.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; it is repeated.

    The author used the same words all, everything at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of For What It Was. And What It Is;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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