This is an analysis of the poem The Shooting Of Dan Mcgrew that begins with:

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;...

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: aabb ccddbb eeaabb ffeeGg cchhff ffiibb ccggbb hhjjg GkkbX llbbXbbbb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,6,6,6,6,6,6,5,5,9,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 01001010010010101 0111001011100111 1001001111100101 11001101110101111 1100111100110001101 110010100111011011 1110100100111001001 1110010110111111101 11111010111101101 11101101011100101 1111111111101101 11111110110111101 00111101010011101 11100110011011111 11101001111100111 111111110110101111 01110010111100101 111110101001001001 01111100111111101 10101001011111101 00111111011111111 11101001011111111 01101001011011101 10101011000101111 01001001011111001 0111001111110111 1110111011011101 1101101011011101 11010010111001011 101010010110111101 101011001111110101 1111001011100101 0101011011111001 1110111010101111 1101001011111111 111111101010110111 1111100101110110101 11101101111010111 10101001011011111 1011100110001100101 0101110110110111 101011001001110101 01110110110110101 10101010110101001 10101101110010101 00111111011111111 101100010111110111 110011101111101101 11101111111111111 1101001011110110 11111101111111001 10101101111111111 1101111011100101 1010011100100101111 1101010011111101 11101011010010101001 0111101011100111 010111110110101111
  • Amount of stanzas: 11
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 398
  • Average number of words per stanza: 79
  • Amount of lines: 58
  • Average number of symbols per line: 75 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 15
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, of, for, he, you, in, with, that, to, it, his, my are repeated.

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

    The poet repeated the same word lou 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 The Shooting Of Dan Mcgrew;
  • 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