Analysis of My Birthday
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
A dozen years since in this house what commotion,
What bustle, what stir, and what joyful ado;
Every soul in the family at my devotion,
When into the world I came twelve years ago.
I've been told by my friends (if they do not belie me)
My promise was such as no parent would scorn;
The wise and the aged who prophesied by me
Augured nothing but good of me when I was born.
But vain are the hopes which are formed by a parent,
Fallacious the marks which in infancy shine;
My frail constitution soon made it apparent,
I nourished within me the seeds of decline.
On a sick bed I lay, through the flesh my bones started,
My grief-wasted frame to a skeleton fell;
My physicians foreboding took leave and departed,
And they wished me dead now, who wishëd me well.
Life and soul were kept in by a mother's assistance,
Who struggled with faith, and prevailed 'gainst despair;
Like an angel she watched o'er the lamp of existence,
And never would leave while a glimmer was there.
By her care I'm alive now-but what retribution
Can I for a life twice bestowed thus confer?
Were I to be silent, each year's revolution
Proclaims-each new birthday is owing to her.
The chance-rooted tree that by waysides is planted,
Where no friendly hand will watch o'er its young shoots,
Has less blame if in autumn, when produce is wanted,
Enriched by small culture it put forth small fruits.
But that which with labour in hot-beds is reared,
Secured by nice art from the dews and the rains,
Unsound at the root may with justice be feared,
If it pay not with interest the tiller's hard pains.
Scheme | AXAX BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI AJAJ FKFK LMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 010110111010 11011011001 10010010011010 10101111101 1111111111011 11011111011 0100111011 11011111111 111011111010 01001101001 11010111010 11001101101 1011111011110 11101101001 1010010110010 01111111111 1010101010010 11011001101 11101110011010 01011101011 101101111010 11101101101 01111011010 0111111010 01101111110 111011110111 1111010101110 01111011111 1111101111 01111101001 01101111011 11111100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,544 |
Words | 289 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 154 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 103 Views
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"My Birthday" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5355/my-birthday>.
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