This is an analysis of the poem The Lamentable Ballad Of The Foundling Of Shoreditch that begins with:

Come all ye Christian people, and listen to my tail,
It is all about a doctor was travelling by the rail,... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aabb ccXd eXXX ccdX aaff aXXd ccdd ffgg Xhii ddjj XkiX ggjj llcc eecX Xhhhhh mmhh Xchh ggbg ffmm nnkk klkX mXXX ddklXhhhhh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,6,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,10,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 1111010110011 001010101100101 1010101110111010 010101010101010 0100010010101 0010001001011101 111011101010110 001010000110001 110000101001001 10101010010101 010001001011000 100010101011000 1101110010101 0101110110101 100101111101001 10101010010111 01001110011 001010010011 111101111011 11111101100101 1110101110111 01110100100101 110101011111 111010101100001 1001000010101 101101011010101 101010010111 11001010111011 1110010011101 0110100010101 111010111101 1101110010011 111010111111 0101010111111 1010111101010 11100101101000 0010011111110 11101001101110 110101101110 10101011101011 1101010010111 010101011001 11001000110010 0101010101010 111101111011 111010010101 101010101101 0110101010001 11011011101 10101011101 111001111111111 1100000101001101 1110101100001 110101000110011 111101111111 01001111100101 10001011011010 10101010100101 1101000110011 11001100110111 001010110011 11000000110101 10001010101 011101110101 11101010111111 101101111111 1110111110111 111011111101 110101011100001 101010101010101 10101010101 1010001100101 100010101010 010101010011 101000001101 101010000101 10111010010001 110101011101 11001010101101 1110010011111 1101110010011 111010011111 1110010011101 0011010101011101 111011010110011 111011101110101 11101010101 11101011110 111101001010 00101011101010 010001010001 11110101110101 01101110010101 00101000101 1011010110101 111011011011 10101010011 1111100010101 10010001110110
  • Amount of stanzas: 24
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 220
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 99
  • Average number of symbols per line: 53 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 10
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, her, she, you, in, vent, i, to are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words and, to, think are repeated.

    The author used the same word she at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

    The poet repeated the same word ' 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 The Lamentable Ballad Of The Foundling Of Shoreditch;
  • 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 Makepeace Thackeray