This is an analysis of The Wise by Countee Cullen.

Dead men are wisest, for they know
How far the roots of flowers go,…

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Structure

  • Rhyme scheme: aaa bbb Xcc dXd
  • Stanza lengths: 3,3,3,3,
  • Metre: 11110111 11010101 11011101 11011111 11011101 11110111 1101110 11111111 01110111 11111100 11111100 10110100
  • Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Stanzas: 4
  • Lines: 12

Repeated words/phrases

and, their

Anaphora

how