A Ballad of the Night by Paul Fort: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem A Ballad of the Night that begins with:

THE maidens short of stature, brown of hands,
With sickles hanging from their arms like moons,...

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: aaXXabbb cXaXcddc eeaaaffX X
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 8,8,8,1,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: limerick
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 0101010101 0101001111 1101011101 11010000111 1111010101 1101010101 1001101101 010010111001 1101010111 0101011100 11011110101 0110110101 11100001001 01000101001 0111110101 11010010101 1101101101 0111011101 01110010101 11001010101 1111110111 011010010010 01010001110 1001000011 01011010
  • Amount of stanzas: 4
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 278
  • Average number of words per stanza: 49
  • Amount of lines: 25
  • 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; from, and, of are repeated.

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

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines song is 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 Night;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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