The Angels of Sleep
Asleep the child fellWhen night cast its spell;The angels came nearWith laughter and cheer.Her watch at its waking the mother was keeping:"How sweet, my dear child, was your smile now while sleeping!"
To God mother went,From home it was rent;Asleep the child fell'Neath tears' troublous spell.But soon it heard laughter and mother-words tender;The angels brought dreams full of childhood's rare splendor.
It grew with the years,Till gone were the tears;Asleep the child fell,While thoughts cast their spell.But faithful the angels their vigils were keeping,The thoughts took and whispered: "Have peace now, while sleeping!"
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- troublous a.
- Full of trouble; causing trouble.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Angels of Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, The Angels of Sleep, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/the-angels-of-sleep.html, id L29257.
Form and metre
The Angels of Sleep is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC fellA · spellA · nearB · cheerB · keepingC · sleepingC
- 2 AABBCC wentA · rentA · fellB · spellB · tenderC · splendorC
- 3 AABBCC yearsA · tearsA · fellB · spellB · keepingC · sleepingC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Asleep the child fell | 5 | ˘/··· |
| When night cast its spell; | 5 | ····· |
| The angels came near | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| With laughter and cheer. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Her watch at its waking the mother was keeping: | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| "How sweet, my dear child, was your smile now while sleeping!" | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| To God mother went, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| From home it was rent; | 5 | ····· |
| Asleep the child fell | 5 | ˘/··· |
| 'Neath tears' troublous spell. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But soon it heard laughter and mother-words tender; | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The angels brought dreams full of childhood's rare splendor. | 12 | ·/˘····/··/˘ |
| It grew with the years, | 5 | ····· |
| Till gone were the tears; | 5 | ····· |
| Asleep the child fell, | 5 | ˘/··· |
| While thoughts cast their spell. | 5 | ····· |
| But faithful the angels their vigils were keeping, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The thoughts took and whispered: "Have peace now, while sleeping!" | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.