This is an analysis of the poem The Ballad Of William Sycamore [1790-1871] that begins with:

My father, he was a mountaineer,
His fist was a knotty hammer; ... 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 cbcb dddd efef gfgf hXhf ahah ijXj dkdk ilil gbgb mXmf XbXb mXmn nana akak llll hhhh okok
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 110110101 01101010 11110110101 111001010 110111011 11110010 0011110101 1011010010 111100101 11101010 111101101 101001010 110100111 101001010 110100101 101010010 010100111 111011110 1011100111 01111010 1110110101 101010110 010100101 111010010 011100101 101010110 1011100101 101110010 1110100111 11001110 111111101 001010010 1111101001 110110011 1111011101 101010011 0010101011 101110010 110111011 11101110 1111111111 01101010 010110101 011111010 1111101011 01010110 1111110101 101001010 10111101011 01001010 010110100 0101010 010110111 11111101 1111111101 10111010 110010101 11100011 1111110101 11111111 0101010011 101011011 11101110101 00111011 11100100111 101001010 0111101011 11011010 11101101001 111101110 1111101111 111100110 1100111101 01111111 1101110101 11101111
  • Amount of stanzas: 19
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 152
  • Average number of words per stanza: 30
  • Amount of lines: 76
  • Average number of symbols per line: 38 (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; he, her, and, me, as, it, my, have are repeated.

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

    The author used the same words my, and 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 William Sycamore [1790-1871];
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Stephen Vincent Benet