Analysis of The Journey From School And To School

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



O what a joyous joyous day
Is that on which we come
At the recess from school away,
Each lad to his own home!

What though the coach is crammëd full,
The weather very warm;
Think you a boy of us is dull,
Or feels the slightest harm?

The dust and sun is life and fun;
The hot and sultry weather
A higher zest gives every breast,
Thus jumbled all together.

Sometimes we laugh aloud, aloud,
Sometimes huzzah, huzzah.
Who is so buoyant, free, and proud
As we home travellers are?

But sad, but sad is every lad
That day on which we come,
That last last day on which away
We all come from our home.

The coach too full is found to be;
Why is it crammëd thus?
Now every one can plainly see
There's not half room for us.

Soon we exclaim, O shame, O shame,
This hot and sultry weather,
Who but our master is to blame
Who packed us thus together!

Now dust and sun does every one
Most terribly annoy;
Complaints begun, soon every one
Elbows his neighbour boy.

Not now the joyous laugh goes round,
We shout not now huzzah;
A sadder group may not be found
Than we returning are.


Scheme ABAC XXXX DEXE FGFH XBAC XGGG IEIE DJDJ KGKH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (44%)
Metre 11010101 111111 10011101 111111 11011111 010101 11011111 110101 01011101 0101010 010111001 1101010 01110101 0111 11110101 1111001 111111001 111111 11111101 1111101 01111111 111111 110011101 111111 11011111 1101010 111010111 1111010 110111001 110001 010111001 1111 11010111 11111 01011111 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,038
Words 210
Sentences 12
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:03 min read
121

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…

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