My interpretation of a 1953 song by a guy who definitely didn't mean it the way I'm interpreting it lol

"I held your hand in mine" - Tom Lehrer, 1953

From the beginning of the first sentence we are taken to think that, in this song, Tom Lehrer will play the part of a simple man who's in love. However, pretty quickly, we understand that this is not a normal love song, but that there's something strange (in usual Tom Lehrer's fashion), since the first line ends with the singer telling us that he has taken a bite from the fingers of his lover's hand, which he was holding.

->"I hold your hand in mine, dear, I press it to my lips, I take a healthy bite from Your dainty fingertips"

The song proceeds with the protagonist explaining that he's heartbroken for his lover's absence, and that he's keeping his lover's hand as a "souvenir", so we understand that his lover is dead.

->"My joy would be complete, dear, If you were only here, But still I keep your hand As a precious souvenir"

The next part is where things start to get even creepier. We find out that the protagonist has spontaneously cut off his lover's hand from her dead body, the night she died.

->"The night you died I cut it off, I really don't know why, For now each time I kiss it I get bloodstains on my tie"

In the next, and last, part of the song we discover a horrible truth (although it was easily predictable): the protagonist himself had killed his lover. Then, he expresses his regret and he says that he will continue to hold his lover's hand, until the police will get him. 

-> "I'm sorry now I killed you, For our love was something fine! Until they come to get me I shall hold your hand in mine!"

According to my interpretation, this song rappresents a distorted form of affection. This isn't the normal type of love; this is obsession and possessiveness, in fact the man had cut off his lover's hand to always have her by his side, even after her death.

This is especially macabre when we take in consideration that the protagonist himself had killed his lover, because he continues to claim his love for her, and he continues to want to "posses" her (by symbolically keeping her hand), even tho he himself is the one who took her life.

This part is especially interesting, because the protagonist expresses his regret for killing his lover, but the reason for his regret is not founded in the fact that he took another person's life, it is founded in the fact that their love was "fine". This underlines the fact that the protagonist didn't see his lover as her own person, with an identity, a life and a dignity, but only as a property of his; that's why he doesn't see anything strange/wrong with killing her and cutting off her hand, to keep it as a "souvenir".

If we read it in today's context, we can interpret it as a critique or as a call out to all those people who are possessive and violent towards their partners, often resulting in murders and domestic abuses, and still consider it "love".

(Or maybe it's just a silly song that Tom Lehrer made for shock value! Definitely more plausible lol)