Analysis of The Butterfly
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
SISTER.
Do, my dearest brother John,
Let that butterfly alone.
BROTHER.
What harm now do I do?
You're always making such a noise-
SISTER.
O fie, John; none but naughty boys
Say such rude words as you.
BROTHER.
Because you're always speaking sharp:
On the same thing you always harp.
A bird one may not catch,
Nor find a nest, nor angle neither,
Nor from the peacock pluck a feather,
But you are on the watch
To moralize and lecture still.
SISTER.
And ever lecture, John, I will,
When such sad things I hear.
But talk not now of what is past;
The moments fly away too fast,
Though endlessly they seem to last
To that poor soul in fear.
BROTHER.
Well, soon (I say) I'll let it loose;
But, sister, you talk like a goose,
There's no soul in a fly.
SISTER.
It has a form and fibres fine,
Were tempered by the hand divine
Who dwells beyond the sky.
Look, brother, you have hurt its wing-
And plainly by its fluttering
You see it's in distress.
Gay painted coxcomb, spangled beau,
A butterfly is called, you know,
That's always in full dress:
The finest gentleman of all
Insects he is-he gave a ball,
You know the poet wrote.
Let's fancy this the very same,
And then you'll own you've been to blame
To spoil his silken coat.
BROTHER.
Your dancing, spangled, powdered beau,
Look, through the air I've let him go:
And now we're friends again.
As sure as he is in the air,
From this time, Ann, I will take care,
And try to be humane.
Scheme | Axx Abc Acb Addxaaxe Aexfffx Aggh Aiihjjkllkmmnoon Allxppx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10 1110101 111001 10 111111 1110101 10 11111101 111111 10 0111101 1011111 011111 110111010 11011010 111101 1100101 10 01010111 111111 11111111 01010111 11001111 111101 10 11111111 11011101 111001 10 1101011 01010101 110101 11011111 01011100 111001 1101101 0101111 11011 01010011 1111101 110101 11010101 01111111 111101 10 11010101 11011111 011101 11111001 11111111 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,381 |
Words | 271 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 8, 7, 4, 16, 7 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 105 Views
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"The Butterfly" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5385/the-butterfly>.
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