This is an analysis of the poem Always Unsuitable that begins with:

She wore little teeth of pearls around her neck.
They were grinning politely and evenly at me....

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: XXa bac XXd eff fge cXf fXf ggg bdc fagXfag
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,7,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11101010101 1010010110011 0100110001 1101100011 111010111 111111100 10111000100 0010101010 10101100110 11111101 0101101010 11101011011 11011111 11100010111 01011111 1101011111 11100111010 111010101 1110011110 1011011 111110010 11110111 010101001 011111010 110110100 00101100110 1111011 110111011 111111111 11110010 0110100111 11110111 101101010
  • Amount of stanzas: 11
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 115
  • Average number of words per stanza: 21
  • Amount of lines: 33
  • 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; i, and, you, have are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of Always Unsuitable;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Marge Piercy