This is an analysis of the poem Afterword that begins with:

Reading what I have just written, I now believe
I stopped precipitously, so that my story seems to have been...

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: Xabcd cef ed ghdg iddbXa Xc X ajg ckj ijjgf cag ehd eXja lhg jcdX ggfl cd cdX bch ch gh jcaXj dk cXggdj
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 5,3,2,4,6,2,1,3,3,5,3,3,4,3,4,4,2,3,3,2,2,5,2,6,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 101111101101 1111000111101010 10010101001010 1001010101001 110100011100110 10110110 010101001 10100110100 011110101 10001110110 111111 1110101 11010101 0101000101 101011111 100001110 1100101110 110110 101001000 100101010 101111 11111110 101011010 101101 010001001010101 0011010110 101101 10000100 101011 1100111 1001110101 1111101 10010 101101110 1001010011 001000101010 010101101 11011 1001 011 1101110101 0101111 1101001100101 100010011 11011001110 101001010100111 010101 1011101011010 1011010100 1010010 11011 110101 010110100010101 01010101010 1011001010 100101 110011010 110111010 100110011 11110111 1111100 1010101 110001 1011 10110111100 111111111 11 011111 0111111001010100 1011110 010010010101 1001110 0111010100 01100101 0101011011 1101010101 10111 101010 11011001
  • Amount of stanzas: 25
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 113
  • Average number of words per stanza: 20
  • Amount of lines: 79
  • Average number of symbols per line: 35 (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; i, my are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word and is repeated.

    The author used the same word the 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 Afterword;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Louise Gluck