A Drowsy Day
The air is dark, the sky is gray,The misty shadows come and go,And here within my dusky roomEach chair looks ghostly in the gloom.Outside the rain falls cold and slow--Half-stinging drops, half-blinding spray.
Each slightest sound is magnified,For drowsy quiet holds her reign;The burnt stick in the fireplace breaks,The nodding cat with start awakes,And then to sleep drops off again,Unheeding Towser at her side.
I look far out across the lawn,Where huddled stand the silly sheep;My work lies idle at my hands,My thoughts fly out like scattered strandsOf thread, and on the verge of sleep--Still half awake--I dream and yawn.
What spirits rise before my eyes!How various of kind and form!Sweet memories of days long past,The dreams of youth that could not last,Each smiling calm, each raging storm,That swept across my early skies.
Half seen, the bare, gaunt-fingered boughsBefore my window sweep and sway,And chafe in tortures of unrest.My chin sinks down upon my breast;I cannot work on such a day,But only sit and dream and drowse.
Words in this poem
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- towser n.
- A familiar name for a dog. [ Written also Towzer. ] [See Touse to pull about.]
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- drowse v. i.
- To sleep imperfectly or unsoundly; to slumber; to be heavy with sleepiness; to doze. [AS. dr, dr, to sink, become slow or inactive; cf. OD. droosen to be sleepy, fall asleep, LG. dr, druusken, to slumber, fall down with a noise; prob, akin to AS.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Drowsy Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Drowsy Day, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-drowsy-day.html, id L00562.
Form and metre
A Drowsy Day is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABCCBA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABCCBA grayA · goB · roomC · gloomC · slowB · sprayA
- 2 AB--BA magnifiedA · reignB · breaks · awakes · againB · sideA
- 3 ABCCBA lawnA · sheepB · handsC · strandsC · sleepB · yawnA
- 4 ABCCBA eyesA · formB · pastC · lastC · stormB · skiesA
- 5 ABCCBA boughsA · swayB · unrestC · breastC · dayB · drowseA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The air is dark, the sky is gray, | 8 | ········ |
| The misty shadows come and go, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| And here within my dusky room | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Each chair looks ghostly in the gloom. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Outside the rain falls cold and slow-- | 8 | //······ |
| Half-stinging drops, half-blinding spray. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Each slightest sound is magnified, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For drowsy quiet holds her reign; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The burnt stick in the fireplace breaks, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| The nodding cat with start awakes, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And then to sleep drops off again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Unheeding Towser at her side. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I look far out across the lawn, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Where huddled stand the silly sheep; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| My work lies idle at my hands, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My thoughts fly out like scattered strands | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of thread, and on the verge of sleep-- | 8 | ········ |
| Still half awake--I dream and yawn. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| What spirits rise before my eyes! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| How various of kind and form! | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Sweet memories of days long past, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The dreams of youth that could not last, | 8 | ········ |
| Each smiling calm, each raging storm, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That swept across my early skies. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Half seen, the bare, gaunt-fingered boughs | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Before my window sweep and sway, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And chafe in tortures of unrest. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| My chin sinks down upon my breast; | 8 | ········ |
| I cannot work on such a day, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But only sit and dream and drowse. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.