Songs by Philip Levine: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem Songs that begins with:

Dawn coming in over the fields
of darkness takes me by surprise ...

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: aabaaXcXcdefXgdd hagXXghhciXgd bcXXfcXdeXfXgiXci
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 16,13,17,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: shakespearean sonnet
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11001001 01011101 11110110101 11000101 11000101 1000011110 10111001 011101101 110111100 1001010010 1110111 1011110011 1111101101 110100010 11111110 0110110110 1001110101 00100101 1110011 011000010 001110010 1110001010 001111010 0110101 1111101 1111011101 011001101 011101010 1001011100 11011111 1010000111 111111 011000111 1101001011 111011 01010101 1011110 10100101 0111111100 10011110100 111111010010 0101110010 111000100 01111110 011101001 10101111
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 564
  • Average number of words per stanza: 108
  • Amount of lines: 46
  • Average number of symbols per line: 36 (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; and is repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word the is repeated.

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

  • summary of Songs;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Philip Levine

Poems about...
✕