This is an analysis of the poem Ballad About Drinking that begins with:

We had slaughtered a hundred white whales,
civilization was quite forgotten, ...

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: abcadeX afXXXag gXbfeX hfhijX XfdkXX blkfadXf fgXgfa cbmibdfl amfgaX gkaXkX adaaXa XXahXX aaafak mXbXXj
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 7,7,6,6,6,8,6,8,6,6,6,6,6,6,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 111001011 1001011010 110110101 1110111111110 1010101010010 100101010 110100101100 01001111 10001011111 11011111000 1110101 1101110 11110101 10101101 1100110 01010011101 11111001001 10001011 11110110 11010101 11111110110 0100110110100 11010100101000010 10111001 10010111 100100111 1101000110 111001111 0101010 1010110011 11110011101101 11001101111 1101100101 1000110001 111110101 11101 1100100100010 10110 1010100 100110011011 110011001 1101010 1011101100 11011010101 1011011 11001110 1001111101 010111001 00110101001 101111101 11011101 1100100 1101010011 010010 1110101 110101 111000 01111001010 11011101110 1010101 100011010 1001001001 110101 0100110000111 1100101101 111001 1110101001 11001100 10001011100 100101 11101010 110010101 01001010100101 11010100 110111 110111010 1011110 11100 111 10110110 0111 1100010011 110011101110 10010111 1111111011 11101110101 0100100110 101110111 1010110100 1111
  • Amount of stanzas: 14
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 237
  • Average number of words per stanza: 43
  • Amount of lines: 90
  • Average number of symbols per line: 36 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 7
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, our, as, we, i are repeated.

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

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines ' is repeated).

    The poet repeated the same word ' at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

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

  • summary of Ballad About Drinking;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko