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

All afternoon my father drove the country roads
between Detroit and Lansing. What he was looking for...

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: abcdeaXfXgfddbhabffcaiagXXaid jfkjdhXedXeaicdhhddhjcgkdba
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 29,27,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: shakespearean sonnet
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 110111010101 0101110111101 11011101110101 111110101011 110101110111 010101010101 1011010001011 010011001010 011110101010 01110110101 0111001010110 111011100111 0111011110 101110001001 011101111011 110111101010 101110111101 101110011010 1010100110110 0101111011011 00101111001010 010111011010 0101011011010 0101000110101 0011111101100 111110110011100 1110010010011 1011010101010 011011111111 101000111111100 100010010110 000111110010 010101011110 01110011111001 010011110111 111011111101 101010100101 01001111101 100101011010 1010101110101 1110111010101 1001110101010 01010111001 1111100110110 110110101110 01010111001 101101100101 0110100111001 011010101011 0110010111010 110101111011 101001011000 111110010010 011011110111 010111101111 101101010001
  • Amount of stanzas: 2
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 1404
  • Average number of words per stanza: 255
  • Amount of lines: 56
  • Average number of symbols per line: 49 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 9
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; he, of, his, or, at, i, she, my are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of The Return;
  • 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