This is an analysis of the poem Truth that begins with:

Man, on the dubious waves of error toss'd,
His ship half founder'd, and his compass lost,... 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: aabbccccddbbeeccffgghhddggXiijjaahhggccaaaaccbbggbbhheekkggbbiieecchhhhhaacchhllXXmmbbbbmmXbXebbggbbffaakkmmccggiinnhhddbbeecceeiikkeeggccccbbcciimmaaoonnmmXgppcchhbbcchhaaccgghhkknnbbiijjccaabbeeeeddqqeeeejjggrXbbddcchhaacciisscccbbddkkhhbbggbbeebbXaccgg
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 588,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: limerick
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 11010010101 0111010101 1111010101 0101110011 11010100101 11011010011 1111110101 0111010101 0101010111 1101010101 1101011001 01011101001 1111011101 01000010001 1110000111 0101011101 1101101101 1011010111 1101010111 1101011101 1101010101 1101010001 1100010001 11001000101 0101010101 0110100111 0100010100 0101010001 01001010001 1001010111 10110010111 1101111101 0101010111 10111110101 0100010011 1001110001 1110110101 1101001101 1101010001 0111011101 1011110101 1101110001 0101010111 1101011001 0110010001 1101010101 1101011101 1100011011 0011000101 1111100101 1001011101 1011000111 1001000101 0100011111 1101010011 1101110101 0101011001 0101010111 1101001001 01001011001 01001010111 1110110101 0101010101 1101110111 1111010011 1101010101 1111010001 1101010101 0011111001 11010100001 0101110011 10100010101 1101011001 1101100101 1011001101 1101010101 1111110101 11010010101 0100010111 111101011 0101110101 1001110111 10011111001 1111010101 0110011101 0101110001 10110111010 01110001010 1011000101 1001010111 0101000110 1111010111 1001110010 01010001001 1100011101 11010111100 1101110101 0111010101 0101010111 01010110001 0100010111 11010010101 1101001101 11100010110 1001010001 1101110011 1101110001 1101010101 01001011101 0111010101 1101110101 11001010111 0100011111 1100110101 11100101001 11010010001 1101010111 0100111101 1111001011 1101010101 1101000101 0101010111 1101110101 1100110011 01010010101 01001010101 1101110001 11001010101 1101111101 1011010111 1101110101 1101110001 0111010101 0101010101 0111011101 01110010011 0101100101 0110000101 1101011101 1011010101 0111010101 1101011101 01001010111 0111110101 0101010101 1101011101 1001010101 1101010101 1111000101 1101000101 1101011101 1111110101 1001110101 1111101101 1101111011 1011110101 1101010010 11010101001 0101100111 10010100101 01010010101 111010001 1101010111 11010011101 11010101001 0101110101 1100010111 1101110101 1100001101 1011110101 1001110111 0101011101 1100110101 10010101 0001111101 1100010101 01011101001 1101110101 1101010101 1101010101 0111000101 1101000111 0011011101 0101100101 0101111101 1101011111 0101011101 1001010101 11010101010 1111010101 11110100101 1011110101 01010010101 11001000111 1111010001 0100010001 1101010001 0111110111 0111110011 0100110101 1111011111 0101010101 0101010011 1011111101 0101000101 1001010001 11111001001 1101010111 1101111101 11111100111 0101011100 11101101001 010110101001 1011010101 1001110111 1011010111 01111100111 1001001111 1101010101 0111110101 11110011001 10011111111 1110010101 0111010101 11001110101 010100111001 10010100101 10110010101 11110111001 1111110111 010100101101 1111011101 0101010101 0101000101 1101010101 0111100011 10101010111 1101010101 1110010101 10110100101 1001110001 1101110101 1011010101 11010100101 1101010101 1101110001 1101111001 0110100111 1111000111 1111100110 1011010011 1011011101 1101010001 1101011101 1101010011 1100010111 0101010101 0101010101 1001010101 0111001101 10110101001 0101000101 1111010001 0101001101 1101010101 1101010101 1101000101 1111110101 1101010101 0100011101 1111111101 0100111101 0111110111 1101010111 1001110101 11010000101 1011000101 0110010101 1001000101 1010010110 1011010101 110110011 1111010101 1101101101 11001110101 0111110101 01010010011 11011101001 1101111110 1101010010 1111001101 1101010111 1001001101 0101010101 11011101111 1101110011 1111110101 1111010001 1101011111 01010101001 1001111101 0101010101 1010110101 0101010001 1111110011 0101011111 1101010101 1101011111 1101111101 1111000101 0101010101 0101010001 11010111001 11110000101 1101110101 1100111011 1011010101 1011110011 1001010111 1101010111 1101011101 1101011101 1101010111 0111110101 1011001101 1111110101 0101010101 10110101001 0100010001 1101010101 0011000101 1101110101 1101010101 1101001101 1100010000 1101110101 01011101001 100101001 0111010111 1010001101 11011100101 0111011101 1111111101 1101001100 1111010101 0101000101 1101010010 11010101001 1101110111 1101011101 1111110011 1100010011 1101100001 110111101 0100111101 1101110101 0110110101 1111110101 1101011101 1101010011 01111100001 1111001101 1101010101 1111010101 0101110101 0001010001 1100011111 0111110001 1001010111 1100010101 111111101 1101110101 0111010101 1011011001 1111110111 1111110101 1111010111 1100110111 1111010101 1100010101 1101010101 10110100101 1100110101 1100111111 1101000101 1011000101 100110001001 100110001 1100010101 1111110101 0101010001 1111000101 1101111001 1111110101 11010110001 1101010101 0101010111 1101010101 01010010001 111111100110 01010101010 1101001101 1101010101 0111010011 0101010001 1001110001 0111110001 1001010001 1100010101 1111001111 0101000101 0111010001 0101110001 1111010011 1011000101 0101111001 1010010001 0100110101 1101110101 0111100101 1101010111 0101011111 1111010101 0101010101 1101110001 1111010001 0101111101 1101010101 1101110001 1111001101 0101100101 0100010110 0101110001 1101010101 01010010101 1010010110 0101010101 1111110111 0101110101 1011010101 1101100101 1001010101 1100011101 1101001101 1001011101 0101010001 1100010001 0101010101 1100010001 1111110111 1100010101 1101010101 0101010101 0110010101 1011001101 0101111101 1101110001 1011110101 1101000101 11010011011 1101010001 11010101001 1100010001 1101010101 10001000101 00110101001 1101100101 01110100101 0111010101 1001111101 1101000101 11001010110 1011010001 10010100001 0101000101 1101110001 1101010001 1001011111 10001011101 1011010101 1111110101 1001001101 1101110111 1101011101 11010111001 1101011001 1101011001 0101011011 0101110001 1101000101 1001100111 11010100111 1001010111 10001100101 1100010101 11000101001 0101110101 1101000101 0101100011 1111010101 01001010101 1001010110 1010010101 00100100111 0111010101 1111010111 0111000101 0101010101 0101011111 01010010011 11101100101 0111001001 1101011101 0101010101 1100110011 1101010101 1100011111 1101110101 1101010101 1011010111 1101111011 1111011101 1101010101 1101010101 1101001101 0111110101 1110000111 1101000101 1111110101 1101110001 0101111101 0100110111 1101000101 1111010111 11010100101 10110100111 0111011101 1111110101 1001000101 0101100101 1101010011 0111010001 1111000101 1101011101 0011110001 1001010111 10111101001 0101010101 110100111001 1011010001 1100111111 1100010101 1101011101 10110011101 1111010001 1111010101 0111100101 0100100101001 01110000101 11010101001 0100011101 1101010111 10110101100 1111011111 11010010111 1100110111 1101010101 1101010111 1111010101 1100010111 10011010011 10110111011 1111110101 1101001111 1110110001 11110101100 0101010001 1010011101 1101000101 1011110101 0111010110 1101111101 0101010011 11000010101 1101110111 1101000101 1110010101 010001110101
  • Amount of stanzas: 1
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 25242
  • Average number of words per stanza: 4575
  • Amount of lines: 588
  • 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; it, of, from, his, and, him, my, her, to, your, he, in, would, as, not are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words no, what, his, the, her, hence, and, to, that, in, pride, some are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines d is repeated).

    The literary device anadiplosis is detected in two or more neighboring lines. The words/phrases regret, prayer connect the lines.

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

  • summary of Truth;
  • 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