Analysis of On Lamb’s Specimens of Dramatic Poets: Sonnets
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
IF ALL the flowers of all the fields on earth
By wonder-working summer were made one,
Its fragrance were not sweeter in the sun,
Its treasure-house of leaves were not more worth
Than those wherefrom thy light of musing mirth
Shone, till each leaf whereon thy pen would run
Breathed life, and all its breath was benison.
Beloved beyond all names of English birth,
More dear than mightier memories; gentlest name
That ever clothed itself with flower-sweet fame,
Or linked itself with loftiest names of old
By right and might of loving; I, that am
Less than the least of those within thy fold,
Give only thanks for them to thee, Charles Lamb.
So many a year had borne its own bright bees
And slain them since thy honey-bees were hived,
John Day, in cells of flower-sweet verse contrived
So well with craft of moulding melodies,
Thy soul perchance in amaranth fields at ease
Thought not to hear the sound on earth revived
Of summer music from the spring derived
When thy song sucked the flower of flowering trees
But thine was not the chance of every day:
Time, after many a darkling hour, grew sunny,
And light between the clouds ere sunset swam,
Laughing, and kissed their darkness all away,
When, touched and tasted and approved, thy honey
Took subtler sweetness from the lips of Lamb.
Scheme | ABBAABBACCDEDE FDGFFGGFHIEHIE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010110111 1101010011 1100110001 1101110111 111111101 111111111 11011111 0101111101 1111001001001 11010111011 110111111 1101110111 1101110111 1101111111 11001111111 0111110101 11011101101 1111110100 1101010111 1111011101 1101010101 111101011001 11110111001 110100110110 010101111 1001110101 11010001110 11001010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,270 |
Words | 231 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 514 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
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"On Lamb’s Specimens of Dramatic Poets: Sonnets" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1372/on-lamb%E2%80%99s-specimens-of-dramatic-poets%3A-sonnets>.
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