This is an analysis of the poem The Ballad Of The Black Fox Skin that begins with:

I
There was Claw-fingered Kitty and Windy Ike living the life of shame,...

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: a bbb ccc ddd eee fff aaa ggg hhh Xhh iii hhh ddX X aaa eee ddd iii ddd X iXi aaa Xdd eee jjX ddd ccX iii ggg eee eee X kkk Xff hhh ddd iii cXc ddXXhhh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1,3,3,3,3,3,1,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1,3,3,3,3,3,3,7,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 1 11110101101100101 1100001111011111 100100111100111 010101011110101101 101111001001101 1111101011111101 101011101011100100111 11001111011101111 01001111101001001 1111001011111111 1111001111101011 111101111111110101 1011010111111101001 11111110011111100 11111011011101111 100101011111010111 11101101101100101 001101111011111 10111001001110011 0101011011101111 10111001110111100 101011010110101001 1101001111010101 00100100011010111 10010001011001111110 11011011100111101 01111010111101111 10111100101111111 01111101111111 11111001010111101 10101001111010111 0111101111010111 1111001011100111 101101001111100111 11101011111010101 11010010100111010 1 1110101101110101 01111101011101111 0111110111111111 1101001111110101 111011111111101 1101001010100101 1111001011110101 110111111110110 10111001010010111 111001010110101 1010010110100111 11001101110011101 100010111110101 01111101100101 101110101011001 1 011101110011001 1101110110101010 10111001011100111 11111111110101 11111101110111 11101011011011111 1101110011100011000 101110011101100101 11110110001001001 11111110110001 11011101010101 010101111111101 11011111110101 01010111011101 11011011111100 01101101110101 11010111110111 11011101010101 01111101110101 11010101110101 010101010100101 11011101010101 10000111101101 11110001110111 11110111110101 11011101110101 01010001110001 11111101110101 010111001111101 011000101011111 011101001110111 110101110111001 10010111011101 1 01111111010101 11011111110111 1101010111010011 11010101110110 01110111001101 0110111010101 11110001011101 01011101010001 010101001101001 010100101011101 1101101111101 11010111011101 01011101110101 110101011011101 111101011010101 110111111000101 10111101110101 10010101101111 11010101111100 101011101011101 100111111101110 11001111010101 11110111110101 11111101011001
  • Amount of stanzas: 40
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 183
  • Average number of words per stanza: 36
  • Amount of lines: 112
  • Average number of symbols per line: 65 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 13
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, such, it's, and, i, by, as, it, its, would, in, your, her, she, they, ever are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words by, i, from, a, and, they, the are repeated.

    The author used the same words for, put, the, 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 Ballad Of The Black Fox Skin;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Robert William Service