This is an analysis of the poem Report From The Besieged City that begins with:

Too old to carry arms and fight like the others -
they graciously gave me the inferior role of chronicler ...

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: a bX ccd eaX efeabgbbhe c eegcXae fdeeXacXdch hbaeeeifca cXe bgeif Xig
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 1,2,3,3,10,1,7,11,10,3,5,3,
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 110101111010 1100110010010100 101111110100001 1101000111111001001 110001001000100110111 10111000100101 11110010010001 1111001001010010110 01101010001 1111100100010001 111011001010100100 1101010101010 110101010110010010101100 11111111001010 11100101000100010010 01000110110100010 11001000110010100010 1010101111110111 1011010110100010 1000010011011100 1011010101101111010110101 1010110101001010 10010111100101 110011110110010 1101110111110 0110111010111 11111 00101101010110010 010010101010 111010100111 1100010101001 1000101000100101001 011100110100111 100100100101101010 101011001001000010000 1110 01001101101010010 010011000111110101 1100100101111 0110101010101 10101111010101 11110110101001 11101110011 1101010100100101 111101011101111110 1110100011110100 11101011101 001000111001011101 1111110100001010 1101011001001000 0101010011110010 10101100100010010 100101000010001 1001011010101 10100100101101011 100010 1100101001010101 101010010 1101111001010
  • Amount of stanzas: 12
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 282
  • Average number of words per stanza: 51
  • Amount of lines: 59
  • 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; i, of, like, and, they, city are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of Report From The Besieged City;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Zbigniew Herbert