This is an analysis of the poem Prayer Of Columbus that begins with:

IT was near the close of his indomitable and pious life--on his last voyage
when nearly 70 years of age--that Columbus, to save his two remaining... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: abcdefghiaiicjbj kcblaf mnoXnn pgljnfcnXn nnnn ndjoX kkXk njmnjeh Xenfjjn hnfX kkXdfnm XpXnXnXnjnbn
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 16,6,6,10,4,5,4,7,7,4,7,12,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 011010001000110110110 1101001101001010101 010000101010010011010 011010001011110111000 111110101110001001010 11110100111010001011 1010101010101010010 1110101101101001101 01010011101110010010 101010010001011110 1100011001010110100 100101010001100100 11010010010011100110 1101010101111110010 100101011010001010001 0101000101 010111 1101011101 11011101011101 110101101101 1111010101 100101 111101 1011110101 11111111111111 1111111111011 111111011001 01111101 1101001011 11110101011101010 11001110011 11011010110101010 110101101101010101 11011011011111101 0 1101111111110001 0101000110011 010101110101 1110010101 1101011011010101 100111000111 0100110101100101 1111110101 01010010000 01010100011011 0100010100011001 11111 111101110101110 10 11110101101100100 11010001011001001 0111100101 11111111011111 1001010001010111 01011101010101 1001111101010101 100101111011111 101 11011100111 111111110 010110010010001 11100100101 0111010100 11110011011111 111101111 11001 01010100011 0101010101 1111011 1001110111 110110110111010 11111100 111101010110110 11 10110111101011 111111 0001011111110 1111011011 1111011111011 1101010001011 0101011101000 100101 11111100111 10110011010111 10011110111 1101011101 110011110101
  • Amount of stanzas: 13
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 377
  • Average number of words per stanza: 62
  • Amount of lines: 87
  • Average number of symbols per line: 56 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 9
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, his, and, as, i, thee, once, more, myself, my, thou, knowest, in, me, know, haply, light are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words thou, the, by, haply, my, and are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines the, thee, been are repeated).

    The poet repeated the same words thee, me 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 Prayer Of Columbus;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

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More information about poems by Walt Whitman