This is an analysis of the poem The Deacon's Masterpiece Or, The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay": A Logical Story that begins with:

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
That was built in such a logical way... 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: aaaaabba cccddddaa eeffffeee gXXXXdddeX hhhiXiiiXjbbbgggkkkXX bbaaaaa kkddjjcc lllmmnn aaaaeeeXillllee ccaaaaeeeffffhhhkkkkXbeeXaa
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 8,9,9,10,21,7,8,7,15,27,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11100100111 1110101001 010100001 1100100111 1111100101 10010001 100101011 111010111 101101101 101001101 101100101 11011101 101101101 110101111 10101001 0110100111 1010100111 10100101111 1011110101 0110100111 0101101111 011100101 10111110 01101101101 110100101 011111111 101011101 01101101110110 111110101 1010110101 01011101111 100101011101 101011101 1011101101 0101 1111111010 101001000101 11110101 111011111 11111111 1111000101 0100100101 0100111111 111101111 010100100100 1001011110 10111111 1010100111 1111011001 11110111 0110101111 10010111 100101111 11100111 100110101 1101110010 1000101010110 11111101 110101101 1110111 101100101 101110101 111011111 111110111 01100111 010101111 01100111 10010001101 01101101 101100101 101101101 111101101 10011101 110100101 011101101 011101101 1111110111 000101111 101101101 100100111 11100100111 0100100101 110101111 111010101 1101101001 1111011101 1010111101 1011111101 1010111101 1010110111 1011011101 1011101111 1110100101 00101000011 10010101 010010101 11111001 110100111 11011111 10001010111 0101100111 110101101 110101101 1110111 11011101 10101101 1100100101 10101100101 111110111 101000111 11110101 11111101 011100111 1001000111 110101101 101010111 1111101 11101111 100100111 100101111
  • Amount of stanzas: 11
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 446
  • Average number of words per stanza: 81
  • Amount of lines: 120
  • Average number of symbols per line: 40 (medium-length strings)
  • 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; in, or, uz, like, and, as are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word first at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of The Deacon's Masterpiece Or, The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay": A Logical Story;
  • 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