This is an analysis of the poem The Destroying Angel that begins with:

I dreamt a dream the other night
That an Angel appeared to me, clothed in white.... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aaaa bbcc ddeX ccdX ffgg bbdd deed hhgg cciX jjbb Xkbb ddeX giff dXff Xlbb kjdX jjaX Xagg ggcc bbXl
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11010101 11100101101 10101001 11111001 1001110101 111010111 1111101101 110101011001 1001111101101 10011111 001001010100010 101101010100 101101101 1101111 11111111101 0100111000 1001001001101 1110110111101 101100111011 110100101001101 101010010101 0111100101 10000100110001 0101101111011 101101111111101 1110101000110 011101001100100 111011101 100111111100111 1111011010111 10010101001 01000011011 1000010010011100 1010100111111 111111101001010 01011101010001100 1101011010010 01010010101110 10101011100101 11001001010101100001 10101110101000 1110001000100101 110010101 11100011 11101001001101 101011101 00110101000110 1110110101100000 1001111001 10101110010 1010111101 10101100010100111 110111010010111101 1111001010101000 10111001001111 11100101010110101 1111010010001100 101001001101101 1001010001 1111100101011101 11010101010101 1111111100101 111001001000101 111111101100 1110110101 01010010101101 11110101011 1110010000 111100100 101010010101010101 100111111001 110110011101 11011111100101 1101010100010101 11101010001 111110110111 10101101110111 1101011100101 1010000101110010 1011101011010101
  • Amount of stanzas: 20
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 211
  • Average number of words per stanza: 38
  • Amount of lines: 80
  • Average number of symbols per line: 52 (very long strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 9
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; she, in, i, it, and, houses, public, they 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 and 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 murraygate is repeated).

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

  • summary of The Destroying Angel;
  • 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