Analysis of Mrs. Katherine’s Lantern
William Makepeace Thackeray 1811 – 1863
'Coming from a gloomy court,
Place of Israelite resort,
This old lamp I've brought with me.
Madam, on its panes you'll see
The initials K and E.'
'An old lantern brought to me?
Ugly, dingy, battered, black!'
(Here a lady I suppose
Turning up a pretty nose)—
'Pray, sir, take the old thing back.
I've no taste for bricabrac.'
'Please to mark the letters twain'—
(I'm supposed to speak again)—
'Graven on the lantern pane.
Can you tell me who was she,
Mistress of the flowery wreath,
And the anagram beneath—
The mysterious K E?
'Full a hundred years are gone
Since the little beacon shone
From a Venice balcony:
There, on summer nights, it hung,
And her Lovers came and sung
To their beautiful K E.
'Hush! in the canal below
Don't you hear the plash of oars
Underneath the lantern's glow,
And a thrilling voice begins
To the sound of mandolins?
Begins singing of amore
And delire and dolore—
O the ravishing tenore!
'Lady, do you know the tune?
Ah, we all of us have hummed it!
I've an old guitar has thrummed it,
Under many a changing moon.
Shall I try it? Do Re MI . .
What is this? Ma foi, the fact is,
That my hand is out of practice,
And my poor old fiddle cracked is,
And a man—I let the truth out,—
Who's had almost every tooth out,
Cannot sing as once he sung,
When he was young as you are young,
When he was young and lutes were strung,
And love-lamps in the casement hung.'
Scheme | AABBB BCDDCC EXEBFFB XXBGGB HXHXDIII JKKJBLXLMMGGGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 111001 1111111 1011111 0010101 1110111 1010101 1010101 1010101 1110111 11111 1110101 1011101 1010101 1111111 10101001 001001 0010011 1010111 1010101 1010100 1110111 0010101 1110011 1000101 1110111 01011 0010101 10111 0110110 0101 101001 1011101 11111111 11101111 10100101 1111111 11111011 11111110 01111011 00111011 11110011 1011111 11111111 11110101 0110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,359 |
Words | 268 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 7, 6, 8, 14 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 173 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 115 Views
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"Mrs. Katherine’s Lantern" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41021/mrs.-katherine%E2%80%99s-lantern>.
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