This is an analysis of the poem The Black Watch Memorial that begins with:

Ye Sons of Mars, it gives me great content
To think there has been erected a handsome monument... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aabX cdeb bbaa ffbe ggXg hhXe iihh XgXX aahh ggaX aXXX gggX XehX ggbX XeXd jjaa dXXk bekX XXdc
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 1101011110 01110010010100 0100001110010001 111001011000 1101010011100110110 0101010100110101 11101110010110 01000010111011111001 0100110101110011 11010010001111 11101010011100 11101001101110 10010111100010010 1010010001110010 1110101000111101 0101001011000101100 101010100100111 110001000110011 1000100101 110010101010001111 01100111101001 1101111001101101 1010101001010101000 100110100010 10101001001001 110101010011011 101000010011001 01010010100010101 0101101000110111 0101010101011 1011110101010 1101011101001100 1010010011101100100 10111001111111 101001110100101 1101001101010001001 110011010110 111001100101111101 10101100111110 110010101100101000 111001011010010010100 1011110010111100100 1101010001000010101 101110100100111111 1101110010111 1010010101010001 101101010001011 1001001000010110001011010 11000110101000 111011001010010 011010100100011 001100011111111000 1011011011001 10101101011110001 100111100010111101 0010001001101010000 11010011110101000 1110101100 101011101010 101000100110110101 1110101001 1111011111101 1110001011101 10110110011001 1010110101100100010 100010011110 101010011101011000 111001000111 1101001010101001 01101011100 101010111111001 011101000010110010110 101110101011 1110010111111000 1100010010001101001 1010001011010010
  • Amount of stanzas: 19
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 252
  • Average number of words per stanza: 43
  • Amount of lines: 76
  • Average number of symbols per line: 62 (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, then, to are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word then 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 monument, aberfeldy are repeated).

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

  • summary of The Black Watch Memorial;
  • 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