A Ballad, Shewing How An Old Woman Rode Double, And Who Rode Before Her by Robert Southey: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem A Ballad, Shewing How An Old Woman Rode Double, And Who Rode Before Her that begins with:

The Raven croak'd as she sate at her meal,
And the Old Woman knew what he said,... 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: abab bbcb Cddd eefe Xgeg dhih cfif iidi jckc dgbg cebe lbfb emdm aflf bMem nkmk clXl dgbg ccib lbfb embm XdXd ambM dede eama adCd GFMF dgng ihmh iaia mebe GFMF lhXh cele ejnj ibcb mchc dbeb dmbm lbbb ijlj ifnf deke eehe nedeXnede
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: ballad stanza
  • Metre: 01010111101 101101111 111110101 11011001 11111011001 01100101 0111111001 101011101 0101101001 110101 11110101 010100 01101111001 1100101 11010001 1101101 010100100 011101 1110011101 1111101 01110100 010101 1110100101 1101001 1101111000 1010110 11011101 1111011 111010101 011011 1110110101 1101101 1010111010 110001 1111100111 11011011 11101101 1101101 1010101011 1101101 11101011001 11001101 010111001 0110011 11011100 1110111 11110111 111101 111010001 0100101 111110101 110111 101111111 011111 01010111 011101 11010111 100101 11011101 1011101 11001111 110101 0111100101 11111011 0110010101 1011101 1101101001 0101001 110110101 011111 0101011001 11100101 1110001001 1010101 10010111 110001 111011100 110111 11110101 111101 11010001 0101001 1010101001 010101 01011100 010101 11010001 010101 101111111 011111 11110111 100101 10110101 110011 110101001 010111 010011011 101101 10111101001 100101 11010111 010111 0101101001 111111 01110111 01001001 110101001 1010111 01010101 110011 1100110101 1011101 11110101 1010111 10100101010010 100101 01111111 111111 11110101 010101 1011001001 1110111 10101101011 11011101 01110111 01001001 110101001 1010111 011110101 0100101 111111101 0010101 1010101010010 1100111 111001001 010111 01011101 1101110 11110101 1101010 01110111 1110101 1110101010 1101101 10100111111 101001010 1010111111 1000010 1011110101 1111101 01111111 10110111 1010110101 10100101 101011011 1111001 10110101 010101 110100101 10100101 110110101 1111100010 1010111111 11001010 11101100101 11001001 1011110111 101111001 1110100101 01110001 10111101101 100101 110010011 110111 01111101 0110101 010110101 111101 1011010111 111111 1101110111 11101111 1101111101 101101
  • Amount of stanzas: 46
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 140
  • Average number of words per stanza: 27
  • Amount of lines: 184
  • Average number of symbols per line: 34 (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, my, have, her, they, as, cold are repeated.

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

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

    The poet repeated the same word ground at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of A Ballad, Shewing How An Old Woman Rode Double, And Who Rode Before Her;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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