This is an analysis of the poem To Alexander Pope, Esq. that begins with:

Shall for the Man of Ross thy Lyre be strung,
And sleeps illustrious Thanet yet unsung?...

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: aabbccddee ffbbddeeXXbbffgghheecchhhh ddbbiihhhh jjffjjgg hhbXkkeekkcc kkcchhhhkkiXhhffddii eeeeee bbccllXffffeebb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 10,26,10,8,12,20,6,15,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 1101011101 11010010101 1001010011 1100110101 1101000101 1101010101 1011110101 0101010101 0100011101 1101101001 0101011101 1101001001 1001011001 1101010101 1100011111 1001110111 0111010101 1110110101 1101100111 10010011010 1101010101 1101010001 1101111101 1101010111 1011110101 0101010101 1101011101 0101010111 1101000101 1001010101 10010101001 1001000101 1101010101 10001110101 0101010101 1101010101 1011010111 11001110111 0101010101 0011110101 1101010101 1101010101 1101010101 1101110011 11010101010 11110111010 1111010101 0111101001 1101110101 0110010101 1001010101 0101010101 10001000101 1101111101 110101001001 01010110101 1111000101 10101010101 10001110101 0100010001 1101101011 1011011101 10011010101 0100110101 1101010001 1101010101 11010001001 1101000100 1001010101 11101010011 0101010101 1101010101 0101010101 0101010101 1011110101 1111010101 1011011101 1101010101 1101110101 1111010100 0101001101 1101010001 1111011101 1101010101 1101001111 11010100111 01010011101 1101001101 1111010101 01111100101 0101110101 0101110101 1011010101 1011010101 1001001101 1101010101 1001110111 1101111111 1011000111 1101110101 1110010111 1101011101 0101111011 1110000101 1101110111 1011110101
  • Amount of stanzas: 9
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 513
  • Average number of words per stanza: 85
  • Amount of lines: 106
  • Average number of symbols per line: 43 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • 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; thy, to, from, and, his, see are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words let, ye, in are repeated.

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

  • summary of To Alexander Pope, Esq.;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Mary Barber