A Lullaby
Now while rest the happy herds,And in folds the fleecy sheep,All the boughs are full of birds,Crowding, sound asleep.Sleep, sleep, sleep,Under the fair, fair flocks of starsThat roam all night and know no bars,Sleep, sweet, sleep!
Now if we an Owl could ride,--Yes, an Owl with yellow eyes,Globy lanterns, clear and wide,Flaming while he flies,--
We should see the pretty things,Pretty little sleepy souls!All their heads beneath their wings,Blind with sleep as moles!Sleep, sleep, sleep,Under the wild, winged winds that flyAll night long across the sky,Sleep, sweet, sleep!
Words in this poem
- fleecy a.
- Covered with, made of, or resembling, a fleece.
- globy a.
- Resembling, or pertaining to, a globe; round; orbicular.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Lullaby is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, A Lullaby, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/a-lullaby.html, id L22066.
Form and metre
A Lullaby is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 ABABBCCB herdsA · sheepB · birdsA · asleepB · sleepB · starsC · barsC · sleepB
- 2 ABAB rideA · eyesB · wideA · fliesB
- 3 ABABCDDC thingsA · soulsB · wingsA · molesB · sleepC · flyD · skyD · sleepC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now while rest the happy herds, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And in folds the fleecy sheep, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| All the boughs are full of birds, | 7 | ······· |
| Crowding, sound asleep. | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| Sleep, sleep, sleep, | 3 | ··· |
| Under the fair, fair flocks of stars | 8 | ········ |
| That roam all night and know no bars, | 8 | ········ |
| Sleep, sweet, sleep! | 3 | ··· |
| Now if we an Owl could ride,-- | 7 | ······· |
| Yes, an Owl with yellow eyes, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Globy lanterns, clear and wide, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Flaming while he flies,-- | 5 | /˘··· |
| We should see the pretty things, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Pretty little sleepy souls! | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| All their heads beneath their wings, | 7 | ······· |
| Blind with sleep as moles! | 5 | ····· |
| Sleep, sleep, sleep, | 3 | ··· |
| Under the wild, winged winds that fly | 8 | ········ |
| All night long across the sky, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Sleep, sweet, sleep! | 3 | ··· |
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.