Analysis of To Charles Lloyd: An Unexpected Visitor
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
Alone, obscure, without a friend,
A cheerless, solitary thing,
Why seeks, my Lloyd, the stranger out?
What offering can the stranger bring
Of social scenes, home-bred delights,
That him in aught compensate may
For Stowey's pleasant winter nights,
For loves and friendships far away?
In brief oblivion to forego
Friends, such as thine, so justly dear,
And be awhile with me content
To stay, a kindly loiterer, here:
For this a gleam of random joy
Hath flush'd my unaccustom'd cheek;
And, with an o'er-charg'd bursting heart,
I feel the thanks I cannot speak.
Oh! sweet are all the Muses' lays,
And sweet the charm of matin bird;
'Twas long since these estranged ears
The sweeter voice of friend had heard.
The voice hath spoke: the pleasant sounds
In memory's ear in after time
Shall live, to sometimes rouse a tear,
And sometimes prompt an honest rhyme.
For, when the transient charm is fled,
And when the little week is o'er,
To cheerless, friendless, solitude
When I return, as heretofore,
Long, long, within my aching heart
The grateful sense shall cherish'd be;
I'll think less meanly of myself,
That Lloyd will sometimes think on me.
Scheme | XAXA BCBC XXXX XDED XFXF XGXG XXXX EHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 01010101 011001 11110101 110010101 11011101 1101101 1110101 11010101 010100101 11111101 01011110 1101011 11011101 1110101 011101101 11011101 11110101 0101111 1111011 01011111 01110101 0110101 11101101 00111101 11010111 010101110 11110 1101101 11011101 01011101 111111 11101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,115 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 100 Views
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"To Charles Lloyd: An Unexpected Visitor" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5428/to-charles-lloyd%3A-an-unexpected-visitor>.
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