“I in particular used to spend many hours by myself, in gazing upon the old busts of the Twelve Caesars, that had been Emperors of Rome, till the old marble heads would seem to live again, or I to be turned into marble with them.”—Explain.

 These lines are extracted from Charles Lamb's autobiographical and romantic essay Dream Children. Lamb always indulged in reverie and fantasized the heavenly essence of family life which he never got in his life. Lamb's imaginative world consisted of his adolescent memories. his affectionate grandmother and the haunted house in which she lived. Here Lamb confesses that he loved to see the marble busts in the hall of the Norfolk house which he used to visit during his holidays. In the hall of Norfolk mansion there had been an exquisite gallery of marble busts of the twelve Caesars (from Julius to Domitian, all Roman emperors) which was a thing of interest for little Lamb. He used to observe them and study them long and deep. He could imagine that these marble statues would stir and share their life and secrets with him. Even he himself could grow impassive like marble as he became immobile gazing upon them.

Lamb had a great interest in art and sculpture which instigated him to discuss with competence the excellence of the bygone painters and sculptors and, simultaneously. criticize the barrenness of the contemporary art. He echoed Milton's lines 'forget myself to marble' (ll Penseroso).