Analysis of Lines For A Friend’s Album
Joanna Baillie 1762 (Bothwell) – 1851 (Hampstead)
LINES , in addition to the treasure
Of poesy, culled for the pleasure
Of beau and belle and gentle dame,
When seated round the evening flame,
What time the social hour is waning,
And tardy coachman guests detaining,--
A courteous friend hath bid me write
Upon her Album's pages white.
But age the easy grace hath lost
That would become such pages most,
While of a quondam rhymester's skill,
Scarce aught is extant but the will;
And sober, stinted age must use
The school-girl's worn and stale excuse,
When, long her correspondent's debtor,
The apology becomes the letter.
Apologies for those who need 'em!
An Album is a thing of freedom,
Receiving all with right good will
That fortune sends from many a quill,
And then displays like scaly store
Which fisher's net brings to the shore:
The herring sheathed in silvery green,
The whiting in its pearly sheen,
The lithe and wavy eel that glides
Athwart the mackerel's tabbied sides;
John Dory with his dolphin head,
Where amber fins like horns are spread,
And flounder, sole, and thornback, all
In turn on some observer call
To mark each varied form and tint;
And from this simile a hint
Of some encouragement I take,
And humbly this my offering make,
Which if received with favour, truly
Will shew that I have reckoned duly
On what might homelier things commend,--
On the good nature of a friend.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEFGGHHAAIJGGKKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100101010 1111010 11010101 11010101 1101010110 010101010 010011111 01010101 11010111 11011101 110111 11110101 0101111 01110101 110110 0010001010 010011111 110101110 01011111 110111001 0101111 11011101 010101001 01001101 01010111 010111 11011101 11011111 0101011 01110101 11110101 011101 11010011 010111001 11011110 111111010 1111101 10110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,316 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,065 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 236 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 99 Views
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"Lines For A Friend’s Album" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/43069/lines-for-a-friend%E2%80%99s-album>.
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