This is an analysis of the poem The Demon Drink that begins with:

Oh, thou demon Drink, thou fell destroyer;
Thou curse of society, and its greatest annoyer.... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

The information we provided is prepared by means of a special computer program. Use the criteria sheet to understand greatest poems or improve your poetry analysis essay.

  • Rhyme scheme: XXaa bbcc ddee XXff bbgg hXff ccXi aajj hhbb hhii iihh kkii ffaa iieX bbbbXaahh
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 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: 1110111010 11001001010100 111100100111 11011101011101 11001000101 10010011101 11101010111001 110010100110111 110100101001101 011100010101 110110111100100 1100110100100100 10110111011 111011011000 11101110101 100100101101 1011111001 1010111011 01011111001 00110100111 10010010001011001 110011110 111001011011 110011111001 1101001011 11101000011101 1101101101111110 11010110100101 010100101010101 111101111 0111010101010 101011011001 011110101101 1000101101010111 101111111111101 001010011001 1011110100111 111110111111 1111111110011 1101110100101 011010110101110 1110001001001 101101001001 101011110001 011111110010 11011101101 1011111110100 11001011111001 101011001001 10101011000110 1111100011 0111110101 1110111111 11100110101001 01011011110010100 1111101011000 11010010010101 11110010011101 11001110110101 11101100100101 1110110111 1100100111 1110010111 101010011001011
  • Amount of stanzas: 16
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 205
  • Average number of words per stanza: 39
  • Amount of lines: 64
  • Average number of symbols per line: 51 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • 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; thou, his, man, he, and, would are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word and 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 Demon Drink;
  • 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