This is an analysis of the poem A Ballad Of The Boston Tea-Party that begins with:

Read at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
No! never such a draught was poured... 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: a bcbcdedefcXcbgXbXbhbhb fgXgbebeebeXgegeXcicjijXkgkXegeX bebelcXclXli bebemcXc nhnhhchcob obmXmi oaoamcmcXXii
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,22,32,12,8,10,6,12,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: shakespearean sonnet
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1101000101001000100 11010111 111010 010100111 0101010 11010101 1101010 11111101 0101010 11110101 0101110 110111010 1101010 01011101 0101010 110011100 0101110 1100101001 01010010 110101001 0101010 01111101 0101110 11010101 1101010 11111110 1101010 11111101 11011110 01011101 0101010 11010101 0111110 01010101 11011100 01110101 0111010 01010101 1101110 01011101 1101110 11010111 01010010 10010101 0101110 111100101 0101110 010010101 0101010 11111101 1101010 11010111 11001010 11111111 0101010 11010111 1111110 01110101 0111010 10110101 0111110 11110111 1101010 01010101 0101010 1101111 1101010 11010101 1101110 11010101 1111110 11010101 0101110 11010110 0101110 11010101 1111110 01011101 1101110 01010101 01011110 11011101 1101110 11010001 0101110 01110101 01001010 01111111 1101010 110101101 1101010 011101001 11101110 01110101 1101110 01000101 1101110 11110011 1101010 110111100 0101100 01010101 11010010
  • Amount of stanzas: 8
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 431
  • Average number of words per stanza: 76
  • Amount of lines: 103
  • 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; no, so, that are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words the, no, a, and, so are repeated.

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

  • summary of A Ballad Of The Boston Tea-Party;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes