This is an analysis of the poem Our Grandmothers that begins with:

She lay, skin down in the moist dirt,
the canebrake rustling ...

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: abccde cfc eeghX gdggeggeiigej C eiXekjljl C mlagaic c elnmaadc c emmeeodXjcX Xij C cgcghodcd ccmoc ana jkj Xcenkkk eXemgcefXaaelkb XXecXm Xc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 6,3,5,13,1,9,1,7,1,8,1,11,3,1,9,5,3,3,7,15,6,2,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11110011 010010 0010011 110011 0110101001 10 11010010101 10 11111101 110010 111111110 11110010010 1001010011 01011 1 0111101 1101 1 01010011 010101010 1 111 10101 0010100101010 100 01111111 1001 11101 00100111 100001 011 010011011 0011010 000100111 1010100 1110011 1111010 11101 010110 101001110 10100001001 1011100011 11110001 1101010011 0100111001 111101 1101 10100010100 1010110 1010010101 11110 111101010 1111 110101010001 111111101 11010101 01010010 10011001010 000010011 010111 1111111 0010101001 1000010100 11001 1011010101 10 1111 1111 111 11101 1101001011 1111 01 11010010 101011 10010001 110110101 1110 1110101 000101 0010011 11111110 110111111 01111110 0010111 10101010 1011101 01010011111 10110000100 1010001001 110101010110 101110110 1010010 10100100 100110 10011100 1000100 11 01001010 010101010 00111 010010011 01001010 10100 0010101 1001 00101 101001 110110 10010 0011100 1001010 101011 110011100 0011010 1101101101 1101100110 10111110001 111101
  • Amount of stanzas: 22
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 158
  • Average number of words per stanza: 27
  • Amount of lines: 139
  • Average number of symbols per line: 24 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 4
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; her, i, no, and are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words their, when, she, into, however are repeated.

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

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines and is repeated).

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

  • summary of Our Grandmothers;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Maya Angelou