Analysis of I Cannot be Known
Paul Eluard 1895 (Saint-Denis) – 1952 (Charenton-le-Pont)
I cannot be known
Better than you know me
Your eyes in which we sleep
We together
Have made for my man's gleam
A better fate than for the common nights
Your eyes in which I travel
Have given to signs along the roads
A meaning alien to the earth
In your eyes who reveal to us
Our endless solitude
Are no longer what they thought themselves to be
You cannot be known
Better than I know you.
| Scheme | AB XXXX XXX XX B AX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 11011 101111 110111 1010 111111 0101110101 1101110 110110101 010100101 01110111 101010 11101110111 11011 101111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 388 |
| Words | 80 |
| Sentences | 2 |
| Stanzas | 6 |
| Stanza Lengths | 2, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 52 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 13 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 24 sec read
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"I Cannot be Known" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28554/i-cannot-be-known>.
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