This is an analysis of the poem A Tale Of The Sea that begins with:

A pathetic tale of the sea I will unfold,
Enough to make one's blood run cold;... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aabbcc ddbbaa aaee ccee Xfcc ccgg hhii ddcc ggdd Xbjj bcbc bbii iiff aaaa kkaa eeaa llee eeaa ccli cccX mmcc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 6,6,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 001010011001 01011111 01011001010010 1101101010 11011010101011 10100101100011101 1010010010010111 1001011110101 1010000101001010 1111010001110 111010101 110101100101 101010001000101011 110100010101001 1010011101111 111101111101 1010001010101 1110101010001 10010111001001001 11110110011101 10010111100011 101110010010110100101 010011111001101011 11011010001011 100101110101001101 0111001010101 111001010110101 11011100010101101 01001100110001 101010011011 11110101010010 10111010111001010 1101001011110101 0101011011111 110101010101 1111001011001 1010100010110101 11010101011001 110011101010010101 110100010001001 1010001001010110000 111010111010 101011111010 1100101110010 11101110101011 111111011 1101101011001011 10110110110001 011010010110100010 11111100110110 1110111010101 100111010011 11101101100101 100111010101101 010111010011 10101111001101 1111101010100101 10110101111 01000110101110101 100111011111 11000111110 1101111110 11011010100101101 10101001001011101 11111111101 01001011001 11111110101 111010111 11100101111111 110001011101 111110110101 01010110111101 111101010010011 1110010011100101 10011010111010101 11101011101 100101011101 10010011111111 1110111110101011 1111111011111010011 11001111110101 1111100100111111 1001010111010101 1110110011111011 1001101101111 1101111101000101011 1111110011101 01001001100111
  • Amount of stanzas: 21
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 239
  • Average number of words per stanza: 45
  • Amount of lines: 88
  • Average number of symbols per line: 56 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 11
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, and, to, on, we, his, it, i, all are repeated.

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

    The author used the same words and, angus, then at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of A Tale Of The Sea;
  • 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 Topaz McGonagall