Discontent And Quarrelling

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



JANE.
Miss Lydia every day is drest
Better than I am in my best
White cambric-muslin frock.
I wish I had one made of clear
Worked lawn, or leno very dear.-
And then my heart is broke

Almost to think how cheap my doll
Was bought, when hers cost-yes, cost full
A pound, it did, my brother;
Nor has she had it weeks quite five,
Yet, 'tis as true as I'm alive,
She's soon to have another.

ROBERT.
O mother, hear my sister Jane,
How foolishly she does complain,
And tease herself for nought.
But 'tis the way of all her sex,
Thus foolishly themselves to vex.
Envy's a female fault.

JANE.
O brother Robert, say not so;
It is not very long ago,
Ah! brother, you've forgot,
When speaking of a boy you knew,
Remember how you said that you
Envied his happy lot.

ROBERT.
Let's see, what were the words I spoke?
Why, may be I was half in joke-
May be I just might say-
Besides that was not half so bad;
For, Jane, I only said he had
More time than I to play.

JANE.
O may be, may be, very well:
And may be, brother, I don't tell
Tales to mamma like you.

MOTHER.
O cease your wrangling, cease, my dears;
You would not wake a mother's fears
Thus, if you better knew.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:11 min read
113

Quick analysis:

Scheme Abbxccd xxeffe Baabggb Ahhbiib Bddjbbj Akki egxi
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,118
Words 231
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 4, 4

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…

All Charles Lamb poems | Charles Lamb Books

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