This is an analysis of the poem The Secret Of The Stars that begins with:

Is man's the only throbbing heart that hides
The silent spring that feeds its whispering tides?... 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: aabbcc aaaaaaccddeeffbbcX ffggffddhhffiijjaaccjjaaccaajjaXkkkkffhhaacccceeiiccff kkjjaahhcccc lljjffjjmmkkhX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 6,18,54,12,14,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 0101010111 010011101001 10110100101 1011010011 11010100111 0101010101 1111011001 11010000111 01010101001 11001110001 0011110101 1111000101 0101010101 101010001001 1001011101 1110110001 11011011101 1101011101 11111111001 1101010001 1011110101 0101010101 1101010101 1001110111 1001110111 1111111111 1111011101 1111011101 01011010111 11111110001 1101111001 1101010101 1111111101 1110001101 1101001111 1001010001 1101011101 01110001101 1101110101 1101010001 1011110101 0111010101 1001010111 1111010101 1111111101 0111100101 1101111111 1101011101 1101010101 1011010101 1101010101 1101110001 111100111001 10101011101 1011010111 01010010110 1111010101 10111011101 1101110101 11010010101 1110010111 0111010001 1101110111 1001010101 1101011101 1011010001 1111010101 01010100110 0101010101 1111010101 11010010101 0101010101 1111010101 1011110101 1101011111 0101010101 1101010001 1101011101 0101011101 11001010101 0101000101 0111010111 1101111111 1111011101 0101001001 1101011111 1101010101 0110000101 10010010101 0101011101 101001110111 01010101001 1111011101 10110010101 1001010101 0111011011 1101110101 0100110111 110101101010 11010101010 0101011111 0101111101 1101110101 11110110110
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 783
  • Average number of words per stanza: 138
  • Amount of lines: 105
  • 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; of, thy, her are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words by, what, the are repeated.

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

  • summary of The Secret Of The Stars;
  • 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