The Sleep-Worker
WHEN wilt thou wake, O Mother, wake and see—As one who, held in trance, has laboured longBy vacant rote and prepossession strong—The coils that thou hast wrought unwittingly;
Wherein have place, unrealized by thee,Fair growths, foul cankers, right enmeshed with wrong,Strange orchestras of victim-shriek and song,And curious blends of ache and ecstasy?—
Should that morn come, and show thy opened eyesAll that Life’s palpitating tissues feel,How wilt thou bear thyself in thy surprise?—
Wilt thou destroy, in one wild shock of shame,Thy whole high heaving firmamental frame,Or patiently adjust, amend, and heal?
Words in this poem
- laboured a.
- Bearing marks of labor and effort; elaborately wrought; not easy or natural; as, labored poetry; a labored style.
- rote v. t.
- To learn or repeat by rote.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- firmamental a.
- Pertaining to the firmament; celestial; being of the upper regions.
- patiently adv.
- In a patient manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sleep-Worker is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of the Past and the Present, Project Gutenberg ebook #3168; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, The Sleep-Worker, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/the-sleep-worker.html, id L16879.
Form and metre
The Sleep-Worker is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABB- seeA · longB · strongB · unwittingly
- 2 ABB- theeA · wrongB · songB · ecstasy
- 3 CDC eyesC · feelD · surpriseC
- 4 EED shameE · frameE · healD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN wilt thou wake, O Mother, wake and see— | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As one who, held in trance, has laboured long | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By vacant rote and prepossession strong— | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The coils that thou hast wrought unwittingly; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Wherein have place, unrealized by thee, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Fair growths, foul cankers, right enmeshed with wrong, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Strange orchestras of victim-shriek and song, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| And curious blends of ache and ecstasy?— | 11 | ·/˘˘····/˘˘ |
| Should that morn come, and show thy opened eyes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| All that Life’s palpitating tissues feel, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘· |
| How wilt thou bear thyself in thy surprise?— | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Wilt thou destroy, in one wild shock of shame, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Thy whole high heaving firmamental frame, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or patiently adjust, amend, and heal? | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/˘/·· |
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.