This is an analysis of the poem The Lake Josephus Days that begins with:

We left Little Redfish for Lake Josephus, traveling along the good names — from Stanley to Capehorn to Seafoam to the Rapid River, up Float Creek,...

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: a X X X b b c c bXa
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,3,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: rondeau rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11101111010100010010100100010001010111101111101010101110110101101001011101001001100110 1001111111101101111100111010110010111011000101110010101 111111011001110010011110001010001011111100101110010101011101011000111010111001111 1101001011100101101110010010001010101010100011101011110111001101 1101100011000110101010010111000101001011011111011111 11110011100110101111100101100111101111111110100010011111001010110100011 010111101110011101010000101111011101 0110101101100110100010101001001011010011001010010001010101100110010 11101010011110011010101100111011010011101111010101111 111100100111100110001011010010110101101111010
  • Amount of stanzas: 10
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 240
  • Average number of words per stanza: 46
  • Amount of lines: 10
  • Average number of symbols per line: 240 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 46
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, to, of, baby, in, i, there's, hell, diver, up, trout, look, good, they, lake, her, my, on, it are repeated.

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

    The author used the same words i, she at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of The Lake Josephus Days;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Richard Brautigan