Analysis of Anger

Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)



Anger in its time and place
May assume a kind of grace.
It must have some reason in it,
And not last beyond a minute.
If to further lengths it go,
It does into malice grow.
'Tis the difference that we see
'Twixt the serpent and the bee.
If the latter you provoke,
It inflicts a hasty stroke,
Puts you to some little pain,
But it never stings again.
Close in tufted bush or brake
Lurks the poison-swellëd snake
Nursing up his cherished wrath;
In the purlieux of his path,
In the cold, or in the warm,
Mean him good, or mean him harm,
Whensoever fate may bring you,
The vile snake will always sting you.


Scheme AABCDDEEFFGHIIJJKLMM
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Metre 1001101 1010111 11111001 01101010 1110111 1101101 10100111 1010001 1010101 1010101 1111101 1110101 1010111 1010111 1011101 001111 0011001 1111111 11111 0111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 591
Words 118
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 464
Words per stanza (avg) 116
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

35 sec read
2,261

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847). Friends with such literary luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt, Lamb was at the centre of a major literary circle in England. He has been referred to by E. V. Lucas, his principal biographer, as "the most lovable figure in English literature". more…

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