The Gyres by William Butler Yeats: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Gyres that begins with:

THE GYRES! the gyres! Old Rocky Face, look forth;
Things thought too long can be no longer thought,... 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: abababccdededeXXfXfXfXee
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 24,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: rima
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 010010110111 1111101101 1101010101 1101001101 01001011101 1000111101 1001110101 1111110101 1101111111 111100100101 1101111111 0100110111 1101110011 0101111101 1101010101 11010111100 1011111101 1101110111 1001010101 010001010 1101011101 1101110100 01010111111 1101000101
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 1032
  • Average number of words per stanza: 188
  • Amount of lines: 24
  • 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; and, of are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word or is repeated.

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

  • summary of The Gyres;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by William Butler Yeats

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