This is an analysis of the poem The Task: Book Iv, The Winter Evening (Excerpts) that begins with:

Hark! 'tis the twanging horn! O'er yonder bridge,
That with its wearisome but needful length... 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: abcdefgecccXhXifdfjXdjciXekXfdidjicdecfXcfelaXbalglemghl mefllcliXcdcijllXdlffhlnfdlleggXcXemnicdlddjajlfjedleXjibeellckenmeekeilfi
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 56,74,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: shakespearean sonnet
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 11010110101 1001001101 10001010101 1010010101 1101000101 0101111101 1011010101 1001011101 1101110101 0010000101 11011010111 1101111101 1111010001 0101010101 0110010111 1001010101 1111001001 0111010101 11010000101 1101010101 1101010001 0111110001 11101010100 0111010111 11010111100 11111001001 10010010101 010011111010 11001000101 1111010101 0100010101 0101010101 1011110101 110110101001 1101110101 11010110101 1101010101 11010011101 1101010101 11110101111 1111010100 1101010101 1001010011 1101111101 1101010101 1011011011 1011010101 01001000101 11001010011 0100110101 1111010011 0100010111 1101010101 1100011101 1001010101 0101010101 11010010101 1101011101 1101011111 10001110101 1101110101 0101110111 0101010011 1111010101 11111000111 1101111101 0100011001 1001001111 11001010001 1001011101 10100101010 0101010101 1101110011 0100011101 1101111101 1111010001 10101011100 1101010101 010101001010 0110010101 11001110111 1101010001 0101010111 1011110101 1111110001 0101010111 1101010101 0101010101 1100000101 0101011111 1101010001 1001010001 0111011111 0101110101 0101100111 11011010001 0101110011 010100100111 1011100101 1001010101 0101110101 1111000101 1101100101 0101010101 0011010101 1101000111 01010100011 0111111101 1101110101 0111010111 10011100111 1110010101 0101010101 11110110101 1101010101 1101010111 1101011101 0101100101 0101110111 1101010101 1101010111 01011100101 0101011001 10011011101 1001000101 1101000101 0011110101 1001110011 1101010101 1111111101
  • Amount of stanzas: 2
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 2945
  • Average number of words per stanza: 490
  • Amount of lines: 131
  • Average number of symbols per line: 44 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • 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, to, of, and, his, thy, thou are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words or, the, thy, a, of, no, and are repeated.

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

  • summary of The Task: Book Iv, The Winter Evening (Excerpts);
  • 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 Cowper