This is an analysis of the poem Jack Honest, Or The Widow And Her Son that begins with:

Jack Honest was only eight years of age when his father died,
And by the death of his father, Mrs Honest was sorely tried;... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aaaa aaaa bbcc ccdd eeff ggdd hhhh eecc eeaa ccii aabb bbjd gghh kell jdgg XkXX mmll Xenn ookeXkkcc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 110110100110101 1101001010101101 11101010111 11100110010000101 1011011101 1111001111 111111011 11110010110001 111101100001 1011101101 0101111111 110111111 11010101111101 10110111111 1011010111 111010111101001 111111100011 1100100111 1110111111101 111110100110001 11010011011 10110011101 101011010101 1101101011111 101010011010101 10011110001 01110101010101 1101001000100 1110100100100101 11111001100101 100100010101111011 111101111 1110110101101 0010110110111101 1111101011 10011010101101 11101000010100110101 111100010110011 101001001111111010 110001111001110 1110110111101 110001010101 111110001111101 1111100100101001 111111101000101 1001000100111101 11110010010011 11110111001001 110111110101 10010011001011 111011101101 1101110111001 10111101010101100 111111101001 1001011001001 11010011110011 1110100001101 10101011010101 1010101101 1010101110101010001 11011110111010 11011101010010 11011110111010 11010111100 0111111011110110 11010100010010 1110111111101 1111110111 11101011010011010 1101011111101001 111110010101 011010011101101 101010110100011 11110011101 1111000101111000 1111010011111 1111110101001110 101100110000010 11110101010110 1011010010101
  • Amount of stanzas: 20
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 218
  • Average number of words per stanza: 42
  • Amount of lines: 80
  • Average number of symbols per line: 54 (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; and, jack, his, her, to, so, squire, footman, honest, you, mrs, she are repeated.

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

    The author used the same words so, 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 Jack Honest, Or The Widow And Her Son;
  • 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