To A Lady by Matthew Prior: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem To A Lady that begins with:

Spare, gen'rous victor, spare the slave,
Who did unequal war pursue;... 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: abab cccc dede fcfc bcbc dcXc ececXcbcb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: ballad stanza
  • Metre: 11010101 10010101 11110111 01010111 000110011 11111101 10111111 11110111 11010101 11011101 11010101 11111001 11111101 11010101 11110001 11110111 01110001 11000101 01010101 110101010 111000101 10011101 110101001 11010001 10011101 11010101 01010101 11011101 110100101 10001101 01010101 11111111
  • Amount of stanzas: 8
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 137
  • Average number of words per stanza: 26
  • Amount of lines: 32
  • Average number of symbols per line: 33 (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; my, to, her, she, he are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of To A Lady;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Matthew Prior

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