Analysis of The Two Bees
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
But a few words could William say,
And those few could not speak plain,
Yet thought he was a man one day;
Never saw I boy so vain.
From what could vanity proceed
In such a little lisping lad?
Or was it vanity indeed?
Or was he only very glad?
For he without his maid may go
To the heath with elder boys,
And pluck ripe berries where they grow:
Well may William then rejoice.
Be careful of your little charge;
Elder boys, let him not rove;
The heath is wide, the heath is large,
From your sight he must not move.
But rove he did: they had not been
One short hour the heath upon,
When he was nowhere to be seen;
'Where,' said they, 'is William gone?'
Mind not the elder boys' distress;
Let them run, and let them fly.
Their own neglect and giddiness
They are justly suffering by.
William his little basket filled
With his berries ripe and red;
Then, naughty boy, two bees he killed,
Under foot he stamped them dead.
William had coursed them o'er the heath,
After them his steps did wander;
When he was nearly out of breath,
The last bee his foot was under.
A cruel triumph which did not
Last but for a moment's space,
For now he finds that he has got
Out of sight of every face.
What are the berries now to him?
What the bees which he has slain?
Fear now possesses every limb,
He cannot trace his steps again.
The poor bees William had affrighted
In more terror did not haste
Than he from bush to bush, benighted
And alone amid the waste.
Late in the night the child was found:
He who these two bees had crushed
Was lying on the cold damp ground,
Sleep had then his sorrows hushed.
A fever followed from the fright,
And from sleeping in the dew;
He many a day and many a night
Suffered ere he better grew.
His aching limbs while sick he lay
Made him learn the crushed bees' pain;
Oft would he to his mother say,
'I ne'er will kill a bee again.'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEX FXFX XXXX XGAG HIHI XJXJ KLKL MBMN COXO PQPQ RSRS ABAN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (64%) |
Metre | 10111101 0111111 11110111 1011111 11110001 0101011 11110001 11110101 11011111 1011101 01110111 1110101 11011101 1011111 01110111 1111111 11111111 11100101 1111111 1111101 11010101 1110111 110101 11101001 10110101 1110101 11011111 1011111 101111001 10111110 11110111 01111110 01010111 1110101 11111111 11111001 11010111 1011111 110101001 11011101 0111011 0110111 111111010 0010101 10010111 1111111 11010111 1111101 01010101 0110001 1100101001 1011101 11011111 1110111 11111101 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,795 |
Words | 364 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 76 Views
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