Analysis of Written On The Day Of My Aunt's Funeral
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
Thou too art dead, ---! very kind
Hast thou been to me in my childish days,
Thou best good creature. I have not forgot
How thou didst love thy Charles, when he was yet
A prating school-boy: I have not forgot
The busy joy on that important day,
When, child-like, the poor wanderer was content
To leave the bosom of parental love,
His childhood's play-place, and his early home,
For the rude fosterings of a stranger's hand,
Hard uncouth tasks, and school-boy's scanty fare.
How did thine eye peruse him round and round,
And hardly know him in his yellow coats,
Red leathern belt, and gown of russet blue!
Farewell, good aunt!
Go thou, and occupy the same grave-bed
Where the dead mother lies.
Oh my dear mother, oh thou dear dead saint!
Where's now that placid face, where oft hath sat
A mother's smile, to think her son should thrive
In this bad world, when she was dead and gone;
And where a tear hath sat (take shame, O son!)
When that same child has prov'd himself unkind.
One parent yet is left-a wretched thing,
A sad survivor of his buried wife,
A palsy-smitten, childish, old, old man,
A semblance most forlorn of what he was,
A merry cheerful man. A merrier man,
A man more apt to frame matter for mirth,
Mad jokes, and anticks for a Christmas eve;
Making life social, and the laggard time
To move on nimbly, never yet did cheer
The little circle of domestic friends.
Scheme | ABCDCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUAVWXYXZ1 2 3 4 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 1111101101 1111011101 1111111111 011111101 0101110101 11101100110 1101010101 111101101 101110101 1111011101 1111011101 0101101101 111011101 111 110100111 101101 1111011111 1111011111 0101110111 0111111101 0101111111 1111110101 1101110101 0101011101 0101010111 0101011111 01010101001 0111111011 110110101 1011000101 1111010111 0101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,364 |
Words | 257 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 33 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,059 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 252 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 112 Views
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"Written On The Day Of My Aunt's Funeral" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5440/written-on-the-day-of-my-aunt%27s-funeral>.
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