Analysis of A Dramatic Fragment
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
'Fie upon't!
All men are false, I think. The date of love
Is out, expired, its stories all grown stale,
O'erpast, forgotten, like an antique tale
Of Hero and Leander.'
All are not false. I knew a youth who died
For grief, because his Love proved so,
And married with another.
I saw him on the wedding-day,-
For he was present in the church that day,
In festive bravery decked,
As one that came to grace the ceremony,-
I marked him when the ring was given:
His Countenance never changed;
And, when the priest pronounced the marriage blessing,
He put a silent prayer up for the bride-
For so his moving lip interpreted.
He came invited to the marriage-feast
With the bride's friends,
And was the merriest of them all that day:
But they who knew him best called it feigned mirth;
And others said
He wore a smile like death upon his face.
His presence dashed all the beholders' mirth,
And he went away in tears.
What followed then?
O then
He did not, as neglected suitors use,
Affect a life of solitude in shades,
But lived
In free discourse and sweet society
Among his friends who knew his gentle nature best.
Yet ever, when he smiled,
There was a mystery legible in his face;
But whoso saw him, said he was a man
Not long for this world-
And true it was; for even then
The silent love was feeding at his heart,
Of which he died;
Nor ever spoke word of reproach;
Only, he wished in death that his remains
Might find a poor grave in some spot not far
From his mistress' family vault-being the place
Where one day Anna should herself be laid.
Scheme | AXBBC DXCEEXAXXXDXXXEFXGFXHHXXXAXXGXXHXDXXXGX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011 1111110111 1101110111 101011011 1100010 1111110111 11011111 0101010 11110101 1111000111 0101001 1111110100 111101110 1100101 01010101010 1101011101 1111010100 1101010101 1011 010111111 1111111111 0101 1101110111 11011011 0110101 1101 11 1111010101 010111001 11 0110010100 011111110101 110111 110100100011 111111101 11111 01111101 0101110111 1111 11011101 1011011101 1101101111 111010011001 1111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,517 |
Words | 295 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 39 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 597 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 144 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 65 Views
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"A Dramatic Fragment" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5318/a-dramatic-fragment>.
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