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

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova was born in 1889 in Odessa on the Black Sea coast. In 1910 she married Nikolai Gumilev, who was also a poet. He was shot as an alleged counter-revolutionary in 1921. Very little of Akhmatova's poetry was published between 1923 and 1941. After Stalin's death her poetry began to be published again. She died in 1966, in a suburb of Moscow. more…

All Anna Akhmatova poems | Anna Akhmatova Books

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