This is an analysis of the poem To Dr. Sherlock, On His Practical Discourse Concerning Death that begins with:

Forgive the muse who, in unhallow'd strains,
The saint one moment from his God detains;... 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: aXbbccddeeffgghhiijjkkhhllljjffcacaXbffmmiimmddnnhhdXdkkffkkddnnffmmm
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 69,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 01011010001 0111000110 111001110011 1111011101 0101101101 11001010101 0101010101 1101010011 1001110101 0101110101 1101001111 0101010101 1111011101 11001010101 1101011101 1101010101 1001011111 1011110101 1111010111 0101110101 0101111101 11010111001 1111110101 0111011101 11010111101 1101010101 1111110101 1101011101 11100010011 1011011101 1101110101 1001110101 1011111111 11010001011 0111010101 01010100010 1101110101 01001010101 01011101001 0011110111 110011100111 0111010101 1101010111 11010100101 1101110101 1111111011 11110111101 0101110111 1101000111 1111111101 1001110111 1101000111 1100110100 1101110101 1011110100 0111001101 0111010011 1111010101 1011010101 1101110101 1101111101 1101011101 0101110101 0111110101 1101111001 0101110101 1111111101 1111110001 11110010111
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 3104
  • Average number of words per stanza: 550
  • Amount of lines: 69
  • Average number of symbols per line: 44 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; one, to, its, thy, in are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words you, o, till are repeated.

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

  • summary of To Dr. Sherlock, On His Practical Discourse Concerning Death;
  • 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