This is an analysis of the poem An Adventure In The Life Of King James V Of Scotland that begins with:

On one occasion King James the Fifth of Scotland, when alone, in disguise,
Near by the Bridge of Cramond met with rather a disagreeable surprise.... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aabb ccdc XefX aaXX ggbX eeXX XchX aaXX XXii dXfX hXjj eXbX aacX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 110101101010101001 1101010101001010001 1101111010110001 1110001001001 1100001110100111 1111100111 11011010011100 11010100011101 111010001 101011110111 111100110001 1111010110011100 110110110111 1011101111000101 1011011000101010100 101001011010011110 10011010010101011000 01101011010 1011101100101101 111010110100 1101110011 10111000100101 11101111101111100 11111011101000100 10011110101111 01111100101101 110111010101 11111111101010 110111111011 1011010110101 11010101000100 1111010011101 1111010100 10111101 10101010100010 111010100110 10111011010100 10100111010011101010 11110000011 111011010100 10111000101011 111000100101010 11010100011 111100100110011 111001111101 1011101011010 01010111010 11110011010111100 101110111101101 10101010101100100111 010110111 11110011001100100
  • Amount of stanzas: 13
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 231
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 52
  • Average number of symbols per line: 57 (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; king, and, you, john, to, his are repeated.

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

    The author used the same words and, 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 An Adventure In The Life Of King James V Of Scotland;
  • 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