Analysis of Lines

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



ON THE CELEBRATED PICTURE BY LEONARDO DA VINCI, CALLED THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS

While young John runs to greet
The greater Infant's feet,
The Mother standing by, with trembling passion
Of devout admiration,
Beholds the engaging mystic play, and pretty adoration;
Nor knows as yet the full event
Of those so low beginnings,
From whence we date our winnings,
But wonders at the intent
Of those new rites, and what that strange child-worship meant.
But at her side
An angel doth abide,
With such a perfect joy
As no dim doubts alloy,
An intuition,
A glory, an amenity,
Passing the dark condition
Of blind humanity,
As if he surely knew
All the blest wonders should ensue,
Or he had lately left the upper sphere,
And had read all the sovran schemes and divine riddles there.


Scheme X AABBBCDDCCEEFFBGBGHHXX
Poetic Form
Metre 101001010101101010101 111111 010101 010101110010 101010 10010101010010 11110101 1111010 11111010 1101001 111101111101 1101 110101 110011 11111 1010 01010100 1001010 110100 111101 10110101 1111010101 01110101001101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 755
Words 138
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 1, 22
Lines Amount 23
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 307
Words per stanza (avg) 68
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
108

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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