Analysis of The Sister's Expostulation On The Brother's Learning Latin
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
Shut these odious books up, brother;
They have made you quite another
Thing from what you used to be:
Once you liked to play with me,
Now you leave me all alone,
And are so conceited grown
With your Latin, you'll scarce look
Upon any English book.
We had used on winter eves
To con over Shakespeare's leaves,
Or on Milton's harder sense
Exercise our diligence-
And you would explain with ease
The obscurer passages,
Find me out the prettiest places,
The poetic turns, and graces,
Which, alas! now you are gone,
I must puzzle out alone,
And oft miss the meaning quite,
Wanting you to set me right.
All this comes since you've been under
Your new master. I much wonder
What great charm it is you see
In those words, musa, musæ;
Or in what they do excel
Our word, song. It sounds as well
To my fancy as the other.
Now believe me, dearest brother,
I would give my finest frock,
And my cabinet, and stock
Of new playthings, every toy,
I would give them all with joy
Could I you returning see
Back to English and to me.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFGHIIJKCLLAABEMMAANNOOBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111001110 11111010 1111111 1111111 1111101 0110101 1110111 0110101 1111101 111011 111101 1010100 0110111 01100 111010010 00101010 1011111 1110101 0110101 1011111 11111110 11101110 1111111 011101 1011101 10111111 11101010 10111010 1111101 0110001 1111001 1111111 1110101 1110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 989 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 34 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 784 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 192 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 125 Views
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