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

On nights like this we used to swim in the quarry,
the boys making up games requiring them to tear off  the girls' clothes ...

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: Xabab cXd ebXXcXXc bXcbf geh adfXaac cgcX hbgbXg fagXXac
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 5,3,8,5,3,7,4,6,7,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 111011010010 01101101000011011 1010101001111101110 111000100011 1010111010010 010101011111 1011111011101 10010101 110110111010100 1001010111001111010 010101011101011 11110011101011011 0110010110110101 1111110011110000 1101110111111111 11001001 1001011011101010 1001011001010001 110111111011110111 101110111101010 11101011001101110 111101100110011001 011101110110101 10001011101 1110011101 0111111011 1011101011010110010 1001111011100101 11100111101001 11111110101 011101101101011 11011010101011 1010111111001110 10100101110100101 100101 10110111 11100111101010 11101000011101 10011110100010 11011101010100 1111011110 01011001101010 11111011101010100 1010101101 100101010110110100 111101101101101 111101 1010001001010
  • Amount of stanzas: 9
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 317
  • Average number of words per stanza: 57
  • Amount of lines: 48
  • Average number of symbols per line: 59 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 11
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; to, we, at, heat, you, and are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word and 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 Midsummer;
  • 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