If I Am To Know How To Restrain Your Hands by Osip Emilevich Mandelstam: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem If I Am To Know How To Restrain Your Hands that begins with:

If I am to know how to restrain your hands,
If I am to betray the tender, salty lips,...

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: abba baXc cdXXX XaeX fcXX dXef
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,5,4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 01101100111 011001010101 1111110010100 1111101010 1010111010 01111100001 01101110111 11110111111 11101010111 101110111010 0111101 01111001 01011111001 01011101100101 101010101 10111001101 110110001010 1010110010101 1111010001 101001101101 11001110101 011100010100 11001101010110 111001011110011 10100011
  • Amount of stanzas: 6
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 196
  • Average number of words per stanza: 37
  • Amount of lines: 25
  • Average number of symbols per line: 46 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 9

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; i, to, no, and, like are repeated.

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

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

  • summary of If I Am To Know How To Restrain Your Hands;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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