What Is Fancy?

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



SISTER.
I am to write three lines, and you
Three others that will rhyme.
There-now I've done my task.

BROTHER.
Three stupid lines as e'er I knew.
When you've the pen next time,
Some question of me ask.

SISTER.
Then tell me, brother, and pray mind,
Brother, you tell me true:
What sort of thing is fancy?

BROTHER.
By all that I can ever find,
'Tis something that is very new,
And what no dunces can see.

SISTER.
That is not half the way to tell
What fancy is about;
So pray now tell me more.

BROTHER.
Sister, I think 'twere quite as well
That you should find it out;
So think the matter o'er.

SISTER.
It's what comes in our heads when we
Play at 'Let's-make-believe,'
And when we play at 'Guessing.'

BROTHER.
And I have heard it said to be
A talent often makes us grieve,
And sometimes proves a blessing.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
119

Quick analysis:

Scheme Abcd Abcd Aebf Aebf Aghx Agha Afij Afij
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 780
Words 157
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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…

All Charles Lamb poems | Charles Lamb Books

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