The Parting Song by Oliver Wendell Holmes: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Parting Song that begins with:

FESTIVAL OF THE ALUMNI, 1857
THE noon of summer sheds its ray... 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: X abab Xbcbc dXdXE afafE gbgbEXgcgcE
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,4,5,5,5,11,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: rima
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 100000111 01010101 110101 01010101 110101 10 11110101 011101 11011101 110111 010100111 1100101 01010111 110111 11111100 11010101 011101 11110101 010111 11111100 111101001 111101 01011101 110101 11111100 11010101 111111 11011111 1100101 11111100
  • Amount of stanzas: 7
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 127
  • Average number of words per stanza: 24
  • Amount of lines: 32
  • Average number of symbols per line: 27 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 5

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; old is repeated.

    The poet repeated the same word etc at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of The Parting Song;
  • 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

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