Analysis of Which Is The Favourite?

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



Brothers and sisters I have many:
Though I know there is not any
Of them but I love, yet I
Will just name them all; and try
If there be one a little more
Loved by me than all the rest.
Yes; I do think, that I love best
My brother Henry, because he
Has always been most fond of me.
Yet, to be sure, there's Isabel;
I think I love her quite as well.
And, I assure you, little Ann,
No brother nor no sister can
Be more dear to me than she.
Only I must say, Emily,
Being the eldest, it's right her
To all the rest I should prefer.
Yet after all I've said, suppose
My greatest favourite should be Rose.
No, John and Paul are both more dear
To me than Rose, that's always here,
While they are half the year at school;
And yet that neither is no rule.
I've named them all, there's only seven;
I find my love to all so even,
To every sister, every brother,
I love not one more than another.


Scheme AABBCDDAAEEFFAAGGHHIJKKLMGG
Poetic Form
Metre 100101110 11111110 1111111 1111101 11110101 1111101 11111111 11010011 1111111 1111110 11110111 01011101 11011101 1111111 10111100 10010110 11011101 11011101 1101111 11011111 1111111 11110111 01110111 111111010 111111110 11001010010 111111010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 864
Words 183
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 27
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 663
Words per stanza (avg) 181
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
124

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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