Sleep
Men all, and birds, and creeping beasts,When the dark of night is deep,From the moving wonder of their livesCommit themselves to sleep.
Without a thought, or fear, they shutThe narrow gates of sense;Heedless and quiet, in slumber turnTheir strength to impotence.
The transient strangeness of the earthTheir spirits no more see:Within a silent gloom withdrawn,They slumber in secrecy.
Two worlds they have--a globe forgotWheeling from dark to light;And all the enchanted realm of dreamThat burgeons out of night.
Words in this poem
- impotence n.
- The quality or condition of being impotent; want of strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral; weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility. [L. impotenia inability, poverty, want of moderation. See Impotent.]
- strangeness n.
- The state or quality of being strange (in any sense of the adjective).
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Sleep, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/sleep.html, id L17092.
Form and metre
Sleep is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A beasts · deepA · lives · sleepA
- 2 -A-A shut · senseA · turn · impotenceA
- 4 -A-A forgot · lightA · dream · nightA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Men all, and birds, and creeping beasts, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When the dark of night is deep, | 7 | ······· |
| From the moving wonder of their lives | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Commit themselves to sleep. | 6 | ˘/˘/·· |
| Without a thought, or fear, they shut | 8 | ········ |
| The narrow gates of sense; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Heedless and quiet, in slumber turn | 8 | /˘·/·/˘· |
| Their strength to impotence. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| The transient strangeness of the earth | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Their spirits no more see: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Within a silent gloom withdrawn, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| They slumber in secrecy. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Two worlds they have--a globe forgot | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Wheeling from dark to light; | 6 | /˘···· |
| And all the enchanted realm of dream | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| That burgeons out of night. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.