This is an analysis of the poem I Cannot Love Thee! that begins with:

I CANNOT love thee, tho' thy soul
Be one which all good thoughts control; ... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

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  • Rhyme scheme: aabbccbbccddeeff eebbgghheegi eejjggaakk ffcjllmmeennddaamX gimm aabbeeddjX eeaammggdd aabbggXmmbbddbbeebbooaaee Xeffeejjggccll kkXeddggdd llbbbbkkllmmddeeXfcc oommllggkk mmeeff mmcc ppbbXbllccaaddddppaapphhXmmbb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 16,12,10,18,4,10,10,25,14,10,20,10,6,4,29,
  • Closest metre: trochaic tetrameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 11011111 01110101 10110101 1010101 1011101 1110111 1000101 1001101 1000101 1111111 1111101 1110001 0010101 010110001 10101010 00111010 11101001 0011101 101101 1010101 1011111 1000101 10101110 00111010 1111101 0110111 0011101 111100 1001101 01010111 11111010 00100010 101001001 1010101 101101 1001101 1011111 1010011 1011111 11010100 11010101 1110100 1011111 1011101 110101 00101001 1010101 1011101 0110101 1110111 10111001 1110011 1011111 1110010 1101101 11111000 1111101 1011100 1010101 10011001 1100111 1011101 1111111 1010101 10101010 10111010 10101010 10101010 00111110 10101110 11100101 1110101 1110111 1010001 10111110 010111110 1111101 1111101 1110001 1111111 1111111 10101001 1011101 1011101 1010101 1111011 11001100 1111101 10010101 1110101 1111101 1110101 1111101 0010101 1111101 1110101 1111111 1010101 1011101 01111010 11111010 1110101 1010101 1001101 1110101 100111100 10101010 00111001 1010100 1110101 1110101 10011010 1010100010 1111110 1010101 1111111 1010101 1011111 1110101 1011101 1010011 11101100 1011101 1111111 110000101 11010101 01011101 1111101 010011000 1111111 10010101 0110101 1000111 10101110 11101010 0111111 1010100 1110011 1111101 1010011 10000101 10101110 11101110 10011101 1001101 1011110 1010100 1010101 1011101 1000101 0010101 1011101 01011101 11010111 0010101 1011101 1110011 1111101 110011001 1010101 1111111 1010110 0011101 1010001 10100001 1111111 0111111 0011101 1100111 1111101 1111101 1111101 1110111 1101110 11011111 1111111 1011101 1111111 0010101 0100101 1111010 1011101 1011001 1110001 1110101 10100111 1110101 0010101 1110101 10010111 0110001 10110001 1010001 11011101 11010101 01010101 11110011
  • Amount of stanzas: 16
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 400
  • Average number of words per stanza: 72
  • Amount of lines: 197
  • Average number of symbols per line: 32 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 6
  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; and, by, no, i, thy, all, my are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words by, and, free, all, still are repeated.

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

  • summary of I Cannot Love Thee!;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton