My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings by Robert Louis Stevenson: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings that begins with:

MY heart, when first the blackbird sings,
My heart drinks in the song:... 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: XaXa XbXb ccXc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11110101 111001 11011101 111101 11010100 110111 11011101 010001 11011111 110101 110100111 110001
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 121
  • Average number of words per stanza: 23
  • Amount of lines: 12
  • Average number of symbols per line: 30 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 6

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; my is repeated.

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

    The author used the same word my 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 My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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