This is an analysis of the poem The Needle, Pen, And Sword that begins with:

What hast thou seen, with thy shining eye,
Thou Needle, so subtle and keen?--... 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: abccb Xcdcc efeef bfeef egccg hecce caeeX febbe ffcdf aiaai jgccg Xieei eaccca cabbXa Xehhe eheeeh Xhjjh eXkkX elkkl
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,6,6,5,6,5,5,5,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 111101101 11011011 11001011011 1100100111 00100101 1101100111 1010101 11101111010 1000100101 1101001 1101001001 11101101 1010100101 10111001011 10101001 11101011001 1101101 1100101101 1100110101 101101 111011111 0010111 0010111101 010101101 1111101 1111010101 1111111 010100101 101011101 11100101 11100100101 0100111 1100100111 110011101 111101 11111111 110001001 01001011001 010100101 1010001 111110101 1000101 1100100101 11011001010 110101 11110111 1010101 110010101 01101101 01010101 11111000101 1011001 00101100101 010011111 110101 10100110101 00100101 110101111 10100101101 10100101 1101001111 1101101 111100101 1101101101 110101011 1010101 1101010101 10100111 11001000101 1010110101 1111101110 10100101 11111101 1010101 10110111 111110101 1011101 1110100101 10111101 011110101 1010111111 1010101101 1010101 110110110 10111101 10010110111 11011011001 10111001 100100101 1100111 1011001011 10100110111 00100101 10100100101 10101101 1011100101 0101101101 10110111
  • Amount of stanzas: 19
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 199
  • Average number of words per stanza: 37
  • Amount of lines: 98
  • Average number of symbols per line: 38 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 7
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, of, his are repeated.

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

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

    The poet repeated the same word know at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of The Needle, Pen, And Sword;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Lydia Huntley Sigourney