This is an analysis of the poem Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard that begins with:

The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,... 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: aaaa bcbc XdXd efef dede dgdg eheh igig Xjkj bcbc blbl ekeg mXmi dgdg bebe ecec dede enen oaoa baba caXa aeae cccc ebeb adad papa djdj iaia adaX o ldld gegeXcecea
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,1,4,10,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 0101010101 01011101001 0101010101 1101010101 11010011101 1101010101 1101010101 1101010101 1101010101 0101100101 0111010101 0101010101 0111011111 11010100101 1001011101 0111000101 0101001101 0101000111 011100101001 1111001101 1011010111 1101110101 11010111001 1101010101 1001001101 1101010111 1100111101 1101011101 1101011101 1101110001 1011000101 0111010001 0101000101 11110111101 010110100010 0101011001 1111010101 010010111101 11011101101 0101010101 1101110101 1001010101 1101010101 1101011101 0100010101 11110001010 11010100111 11001000101 1100110101 1001010110 1100011101 1101010001 11001010101 01100010101 110010010101 1101010101 1101010101 0101000101 11010010111 1101000101 101010100001 0101110001 01010100101 11110000101 1101110101 1101011101 0101110001 1101010111 01001010101 01010001001 1101010011 0011010101 1001010101 1101010101 0101010101 11010010011 1111001001 11010010101 0111110101 0101010001 111011110001 0101110001 11001010111 1101010001 1101100001 01010101001 1011100101 1111010101 1111010101 11010101010 1001010101 10110111010 111100110001 1011110101 0111010101 1101010111 1011010111 1111110101 1001010101 0101010101 1101010101 11001010111 0101110111 1101011101 1111110101 1001010111 1101011101 1101110101 11111101001 0101110101 0101110101 1101110111 1101010101 1101111111 0111111101 1010101111 0101 10101010101 0101010101 1101110101 1101011101 1101010101 1001011101 1101011101 1101111101 1101010001 1101001101 11010100101 0100010101 1
  • Amount of stanzas: 33
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 169
  • Average number of words per stanza: 30
  • Amount of lines: 130
  • Average number of symbols per line: 42 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; their, of, some, to, nor are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words the, how, some, their, ev'n, he are repeated.

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

  • summary of Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Thomas Gray