Analysis of I Wrung My Hands
Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)
I wrung my hands under my dark veil. . .
"Why are you pale, what makes you reckless?"
-- Because I have made my loved one drunk
with an astringent sadness.
I'll never forget. He went out, reeling;
his mouth was twisted, desolate. . .
I ran downstairs, not touching the banisters,
and followed him as far as the gate.
And shouted, choking: "I meant it all
in fun. Don't leave me, or I'll die of pain."
He smiled at me -- oh so calmly, terribly --
and said: "Why don't you get out of the rain?"
Scheme | XAXA XXAX XBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 111110111 111111110 011111111 1101010 1100111110 11110100 111111001 010111101 010101111 0111111111 11111110100 0111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 489 |
Words | 98 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 204 Views
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