Analysis of The First Leaf Of Spring
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
WRITTEN ON THE FIRST LEAF OF A LADY'S ALBUM.
Thou fragile, filmy, gossamery thing,
First leaf of spring!
At every lightest breath that quakest,
And with a zephyr shakest;
Scarce stout enough to hold thy slender form together
In calmest halcyon weather:
Next sister to the web that spiders weave,
Poor flutterers to deceive
Into their treacherous silken bed:
O! how art thou sustained, how nourishëd!
All trivial as thou art,
Without dispute,
Thou play'st a mighty part;
And art the herald to a throng
Of buds, blooms, fruit,
That shall thy cracking branches sway,
While birds on every spray
Shall pay the copious fruitage with a sylvan song.
So 'tis with thee, whoe'er on thee shall look,
First leaf of this beginning modest book.
Slender thou art, God knowest,
And little grace bestowest,
But in thy train shall follow after,
Wit, wisdom, seriousness, in hand with laughter;
Provoking jests, restraining soberness,
In their appropriate dress;
And I shall joy to be outdone
By those who brighter trophies won,
Without a grief,
That I thy slender promise have begun,
First leaf.
Scheme | X AABBCCDDBBBBBEBFFEGGBBCCHHIIJIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011101010 110111 1111 110010111 010101 1101111101010 01010010 1101011101 11101 011100101 1111011101 1100111 0101 1110101 01010101 1111 11110101 1111001 110100110101 111111111 1111010101 101111 01011 101111010 110100001110 01010101 0101001 01111111 11110101 0101 1111010101 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,061 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 31 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 427 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 91 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 51 Views
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