This is an analysis of the poem The Burning Of The Steamer City Of Montreal that begins with:

A sad tale of the sea I will relate, which will your hearts appal
Concerning the burning of the steamship "City of Montreal,"... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: XXaa XXXX bbcc ddee bbff ccgh ijgg kkcc cchh aagg ijcc bbhh kkXl gglX
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: alternate rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 0110011001101110 01001000111000100 11111101101101 10101001000001 010111101100010011 1110110110 111101111001 10110101010101011 110010011011101 11011111101001 011011101011100001 10101010010011 10101110101 11110100111101 1101101100101 101010010001001 1010110011001 0101101010111 1001000001001 00100111010101 110010100101001 101000100101100101 101001011001 01001011010110100 01011101100 1110110010001 10110101100101 111111101001 1101010101101 1111010100110101 01101110111101 11010011100 1011100110111 10011000101 1110111110101110 1010001010101110010 1101101001001 10101000101010001 111001010010101 10101101010101 110110011000 100100001011001 111101010110101 00101110101 11111010101101 11011001001 10111010000100 110110101011010 10111011111001 00111001001 10010011110110 1011010101001 10101111000111 00101001011100110 11101011111 11001111011110110
  • Amount of stanzas: 14
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 230
  • Average number of words per stanza: 41
  • Amount of lines: 56
  • 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; of, to, and, with, be 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 The Burning Of The Steamer City Of Montreal;
  • 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