Analysis of The Ride

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



Lately an equipage I overtook,
And helped to lift it o'er a narrow brook.
No horse it had except one boy, who drew
His sister out in it the fields to view.
O happy town-bred girl, in fine chaise going
For the first time to see the green grass growing.
This was the end and purport of the ride
I learned, as walking slowly by their side
I heard their conversation. Often she-
'Brother, is this the country that I see?'
The bricks were smoking, and the ground was broke,
There were no signs of verdure when she spoke.
He, as the well-informed delight in chiding
The ignorant, these questions still deriding,
To his good judgment modestly she yields;
Till, brick-kilns past, they reached the open fields.
Then, as with rapturous wonder round she gazes
On the green grass, the buttercups, and daisies,
'This is the country sure enough,' she cries;
'Is't not a charming place?' The boy replies,
'We'll go no further.' 'No,' says she, 'no need;
'No finer place than this can be indeed.'
I left them gathering flowers, the happiest pair
That ever London sent to breathe the fine fresh air.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFCCGGHIJJKKLL
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101 01111100101 1111011111 1101010111 11011101110 10111101110 110101101 1111010111 111010101 1011010111 0101000111 101111111 11010101010 01001101010 1111010011 1111110101 111100101110 1011010010 1101010111 11101010101 1111011111 1101111101 1111001001001 110101110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,067
Words 202
Sentences 12
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 834
Words per stanza (avg) 194
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

59 sec read
82

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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