The Brides going to bed
What mean'st thou Bride, this companie to keep?To sit up, till thou faine wouldst sleep?Thou maist not, when thou art laid, doe so.Thy selfe must to him a new banquet grow,And you must entertaineAnd doe all this daies dances o'r againe.Know that if Sun and Moone together doeRise in one point, they doe not set so too;Therefore thou maist, faire Bride, to bed depart,Thou art not gone, being gone; where e'r thou art,Thou leav'st in him thy watchfull eyes, in him thy loving heart.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Brides going to bed is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, The Brides going to bed, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/the-brides-going-to-bed.html, id L19892.
Form and metre
The Brides going to bed is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 73% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCB-DDD keepA · sleepA · soB · growB · entertaineC · againeC · doeB · too · departD · artD · heartD
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What mean'st thou Bride, this companie to keep? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| To sit up, till thou faine wouldst sleep? | 8 | ········ |
| Thou maist not, when thou art laid, doe so. | 9 | ········· |
| Thy selfe must to him a new banquet grow, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And you must entertaine | 6 | ······ |
| And doe all this daies dances o'r againe. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Know that if Sun and Moone together doe | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Rise in one point, they doe not set so too; | 10 | ·········· |
| Therefore thou maist, faire Bride, to bed depart, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Thou art not gone, being gone; where e'r thou art, | 10 | ····/····· |
| Thou leav'st in him thy watchfull eyes, in him thy loving heart. | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
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.