Analysis of The Brother's Reply
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
Sister, fie, for shame, no more,
Give this ignorant babble o'er,
Nor with little female pride
Things above your sense deride.
Why this foolish under-rating
Of my first attempts at Latin?
Know you not each thing we prize
Does from small beginnings rise?
'Twas the same thing with your writing,
Which you now take such delight in.
First you learnt the down-stroke line,
Then the hair-stroke thin and fine,
Then a curve, and then a better,
Till you came to form a letter;
Then a new task was begun,
How to join them two in one;
Till you got (these first steps past)
To your fine text-hand at last.
So though I at first commence
With the humble accidence,
And my study's course affords
Little else as yet but words,
I shall venture in a while
At construction, grammar, style,
Learn my syntax, and proceed
Classic authors next to read,
Such as wiser, better, make us,
Sallust, Phædrus, Ovid, Flaccus:
All the poets (with their wit),
All the grave historians writ,
Who the lives and actions show
Of men famous long ago;
Even their very sayings giving
In the tongue they used when living.
Think not I shall do that wrong
Either to my native tongue,
English authors to despise,
Or those books which you so prize;
Though from them awhile I stray,
By new studies called away,
Them when next I take in hand,
I shall better understand.
For I've heard wise men declare
Many words in English are
From the Latin tongue derived,
Of whose sense girls are deprived
'Cause they do not Latin know.-
But if all this anger grow
From this cause, that you suspect
By proceedings indirect,
I would keep (as misers pelf)
All this learning to myself;
Sister, to remove this doubt,
Rather than we will fall out,
(If our parents will agree)
You shall Latin learn with me.
Scheme | XABBCDEECXFFAADDGGXEXXHHXXXEIIJJCC XXEEKKLLXXMMJJNNOOPPQQ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011111 111001010 111011 1011101 11101010 11101110 1111111 1110101 10111110 11111010 1110111 1011101 10101010 11111010 1011101 1111101 1111111 1111111 1111101 10101 0110101 1011111 1110001 1010101 111001 1010111 11101011 111111 1010111 10101001 1010101 1110101 101101010 00111110 1111111 1011101 1010101 1111111 1110111 1110101 1111101 111001 1111101 1010101 1010101 1111101 1111101 1111101 1111101 1010001 1111101 111011 1010111 1011111 11010101 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,696 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 34, 22 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 679 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 158 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 79 Views
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