Analysis of Written A Year After The Events
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
Alas! how am I chang'd! Where be the tears,
The sobs, and forc'd suspensions of the breath,
And all the dull desertions of the heart,
With which I hung o'er my dead mother's corse?
Where be the blest subsidings of the storm
Within, the sweet resignedness of hope
Drawn heavenward, and strength of filial love,
In which I bow'd me to my father's will?
My God, and my Redeemer! keep not thou
My soul in brute and sensual thanklessness
Seal'd up; oblivious ever of that dear grace,
And health restor'd to my long-loved friend,
Long-lov'd, and worthy known. Thou didst not leave
Her soul in death! O leave not now, my Lord,
Thy servants in far worse, in spiritual death!
And darkness blacker than those feared shadows
Of the valley all must tread. Lend us thy balms,
Thou dear Physician of the sin-sick soul,
And heal our cleansed bosoms of the wounds
With which the world has pierc'd us thro' and thro'.
Give us new flesh, new birth. Elect of heav'n
May we become; in thine election sure
Contain'd, and to one purpose stedfast drawn,
Our soul's salvation!
Thou, and I, dear friend,
With filial recognition sweet, shall know
One day the face of our dear mother in heaven;
And her remember'd looks of love shall greet
With looks of answering love; her placid smiles
Meet with a smile as placid, and her hand
With drops of fondness wet, nor fear repulse.
Be witness for me, Lord, I do not ask
Those days of vanity to return again
(Nor fitting me to ask, nor thee to give).
Vain loves and wanderings with a fair-hair'd maid,
Child of the dust as I am, who so long
My captive heart steep'd in idolatry
And creature-loves. Forgive me, O my Maker!
If in a mood of grief I sin almost
In sometimes brooding on the days long past,
And from the grave of time wishing them back,
Days of a mother's fondness to her child,
Her little one.
O where be now those sports,
And infant play-games? where the joyous troops
Of children, and the haunts I did so love?
O my companions, O ye loved names
Of friend or playmate dear; gone are ye now;
Gone diverse ways; to honour and credit some,
And some, I fear, to ignominy and shame!
I only am left, with unavailing grief
To mourn one parent dead, and see one live
Of all life's joys bereft and desolate:
Am left with a few friends, and one, above
The rest, found faithful in a length of years,
Contented as I may, to bear me on
To the not unpeaceful evening of a day
Made black by morning storms!
Scheme | ABXXXXCXDAXEXXBXXXXFGFGG EGGXXXXXGXXXFFXXXXG XXCXDXXXXXCXGXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111101 0101010101 0101010101 11111011101 11011101 0101111 110111001 0111111101 11011111 110101001 110100101111 010111111 1101011111 0101111111 110011010001 010101111 10101111111 1101010111 011011101 1101111101 1111110111 1101010101 010111011 101010 10111 1100010111 1101110110010 0001011111 11110010101 1101110001 1111011101 1101111111 11110010101 1101111111 11010010111 1101111111 1101100100 01010111110 100111111 0011010111 0101111011 1101010101 0101 111111 0101110101 1100011111 110101111 111111111 1011110101 0111110001 1101110101 1111010111 1111010100 1110110101 0111000111 0101111111 101110101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,385 |
Words | 455 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 19, 15 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 622 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 150 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 49 Views
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"Written A Year After The Events" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5437/written-a-year-after-the-events>.
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