To Read Only Children's Books by Osip Emilevich Mandelstam: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem To Read Only Children's Books that begins with:

To read only children's books,
To have only childish thoughts,...

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: aaXa XXXb XXXb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 4,4,4,
  • Closest metre: iambic trimeter
  • Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Metre: 0110101 0110101 011011101 010110 11101001 10011000 111111 1111110 11001010 101101 1111 101001010
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 111
  • Average number of words per stanza: 22
  • Amount of lines: 12
  • Average number of symbols per line: 27 (strings are less long than medium ones)
  • 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; to, i are repeated.

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

    The author used the same word i at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

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

  • summary of To Read Only Children's Books;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

Poems about...
✕