153:, who had recently been confined in a lunatic asylum during one of her periodic fits of madness, in the first of which she had killed her mother. The "fairest among women" of the fourth stanza was, he thought, a Hertfordshire girl called Ann Simmons whom Lamb loved in his earliest youth and whom he elsewhere wrote about under the names "Anna" and "Alice W—". A later biographer, Winifred F. Courtney, largely concurred with Lucas's identifications, but suggested that the plural form of the phrase
859:
22:
181:
The disorder Lamb mentions may have been caused by Mary's recent mental health crisis and confinement, or perhaps by their father's decline in physical health. The loose metre he apologises for can be interpreted as a reminiscence of the dactylic metre he and
Coleridge had studied in Latin verse at
215:
complained of the "rambling incompetence of the argument"; he suggested improvements, but claimed that even they could make the poem no more than "a macabre account of what would now be called 'a regressive infantile fixation'." Others have called it Lamb's most successful poem, a work which shows
210:
Lamb is not now principally known as a poet, "The Old
Familiar Faces" and "Hester" being the only two of his poems that are still read and valued. Popular as it is, there is no critical consensus as to whether "The Old Familiar Faces" is an artistic success. Lamb himself confessed that he had no
224:
treatment of the universal, everyday experience of loss. "The very cadence of the household word is heard as a peculiar intimation. Objects a few doors off are seen as from beyond the grave." E. V. Lucas thought it "unsurpassed in the language" for its "tragic tenderness and melancholy".
202:(1818), but without the opening four lines referring to Mary's killing of their mother, doubtless having come to the conclusion that those events were no business of the reading public. Later anthologies have often printed the poem in this curtailed form.
44:. Written in the aftermath of his mother's death and of rifts with old friends, it is a lament for the relationships he had lost. It has long been Lamb's most popular poem, and was included in both
173:, and a miscellaneous company was there. Lloyd had been playing on a pianoforte till my feelings were wrought too high not to require Vent. I left em suddenly & rushed into y
268:
177:, where I was born, you know – & in y state of mind that followed stanzas. They pretend to little like Metre, but they will pourtray y Disorder I was in.
216:
him "at his bleakest and most powerful", "transcend the particulars of his situation to express his feelings about it in universal terms". The poet
660:
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165:"The Old Familiar Faces" was written in January 1798 in circumstances Lamb himself described in a note to his friend Marmaduke Thompson.
775:
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46:
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Lamb published "The Old
Familiar Faces", along with six others of his own poems and more by his friend Charles Lloyd, in their
421:
The Works in Prose and Verse of
Charles and Mary Lamb. Vol. II: Tales for Children, Poetry for Children, Poems, Dramatic Works
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834:
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477:
182:
school, though he may also have been influenced by the unstressed final syllables which characterise the
Jacobean playwright
211:
skill in the handling of metre, but A. C. Ward argued that this is no handicap in a poem that depends instead on rhythm.
51:
936:
170:
277:
764:
James, Felicity (2020). "Charles Lamb, Elia, and Essays in
Familiarity". In Karshan, Thomas; Murphy, Kathryn (eds.).
884:
419:
237:
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29:
686:"The old familiar faces: for bass and chamber orchestra / music by Jan Mul (1969), poem by Charles Lamb (1798)"
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Charles Lamb and His
Contemporaries: Being the Clark Lectures Delivered at Trinity College Cambridge, 1932
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in 1798, the year he wrote and published "The Old
Familiar Faces". Drawn and engraved by
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The
Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Volume 1: Letters of Charles Lamb, 1796–1801
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217:
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661:"The Old Familiar Faces / Poetry by Charles Lamb; [music by G.A. Macfarren]"
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The Golden
Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language
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The Letters of Charles Lamb to Which Are Added Those of His Sister Mary Lamb
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21:
869:
944:
243:
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indicated that Lamb was referring to Ann Simmons as well as Mary Lamb.
246:, "The Old Familiar Faces", for bass and chamber orchestra (1969).
20:
873:
515:
The Frolic and the Gentle: A Centenary Study of Charles Lamb
233:
There have been at least two settings by notable composers:
240:, "The Old Familiar Faces", for voice and piano (c. 1865).
465:
The Common Asphodel: Collected Essays on Poetry 1922–1949
40:" (1798) is a lyric poem by the English man of letters
276:. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 668. Archived from
137:
identified the friend in the fifth stanza as the poet
770:. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 185–205.
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Ghost-like, I paced round the haunts of my childhood.
119:
How some they have died, and some they have left me,
86:
Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies,
79:In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days,
169:I spent an evening about a week ago with Lloyd.
167:
149:he interpreted as a reference to Lamb's sister
114:Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?
93:Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her—
552:Poetic Craft and Principle: Lectures and Talks
424:. London: Oxford University Press. p. 547
107:Earth seemed a desart I was bound to traverse,
885:
588:"Happy Returns? Lamb, Gray, and Wordsworth's
121:And some are taken from me; all are departed;
112:Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,
8:
102:Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.
98:I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man;
84:I have been laughing, I have been carousing,
77:I have had playmates, I have had companions,
67:Where are they gone, the old familiar faces?
220:was struck by the poem's dreamlike, almost
123:All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
116:So might we talk of the old familiar faces—
100:Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;
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95:All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
88:All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
81:All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
74:All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
70:I had a mother, but she died, and left me,
91:I loved a love once, fairest among women;
829:. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
623:
499:
472:. New York: Haskell House. p. 180.
442:
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723:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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145:, Lamb's old schoolfellow. The phrase
109:Seeking to find the old familiar faces.
647:
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72:Died prematurely in a day of horrors—
7:
937:Specimens of English Dramatic Poets
767:On Essays: Montaigne to the Present
303:. Cambridge: Macmillan. p. 216
823:Marrs, Jr., Edwin W., ed. (1975).
810:. New Haven: Yale University Press
14:
555:. London: Cassell. pp. 54–57
857:
799:(5th ed.). London: Methuen.
518:. London: Methuen. p. 143.
418:Hutchinson, Thomas, ed. (1908).
270:The Oxford Book of English Verse
47:The Oxford Book of English Verse
736:Courtney, Winifred F. (1982).
1:
141:, and that in the seventh as
739:Young Charles Lamb 1775–1802
198:(1798). He reprinted it in
586:Fairer, David (July 2005).
1018:
804:Lucas, E. V., ed. (1935).
324:, pp. 75–76, 80, 129.
238:George Alexander Macfarren
945:The Adventures of Ulysses
908:
599:The Charles Lamb Bulletin
200:The Works of Charles Lamb
16:1798 poem by Charles Lamb
797:The Life of Charles Lamb
295:Palgrave, Francis Turner
969:Letters of Charles Lamb
953:Mrs. Leicester's School
462:(1970). "Anthologies".
143:Samuel Taylor Coleridge
929:Tales from Shakespeare
914:The Old Familiar Faces
864:The Old Familiar Faces
179:
155:some are taken from me
147:some are taken from me
126:
38:The Old Familiar Faces
33:
1002:Works by Charles Lamb
742:. London: Macmillan.
265:Quiller-Couch, Arthur
64:
24:
665:Library Hub Discover
512:Ward, C. W. (1934).
502:, pp. 63, 233.
348:, pp. 120–121.
336:, pp. 76, 164.
222:Alice in Wonderland
133:Lamb's biographer
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840:. Retrieved
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196:Blank Verse
190:Publication
161:Composition
135:E. V. Lucas
52:Palgrave's
992:1798 poems
986:Categories
836:0801409306
708:References
648:Lucas 1910
574:James 2020
479:0838310230
406:Marrs 1975
394:James 2020
370:Marrs 1975
358:Lucas 1935
346:Lucas 1935
322:Lucas 1910
186:'s works.
964:(1823/33)
900:Works by
795:(1910) .
251:Citations
206:Criticism
916:" (1798)
717:(1933).
549:(1967).
229:Settings
690:Donemus
601:. New.
244:Jan Mul
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