The Sleeper
Oh! lightly, lightly tread!A holy thing is sleep,On the worn spirit shed,And eyes that wake to weep.
A holy thing from heaven,A gracious dewy cloud,A covering mantle givenThe weary to enshroud.
Oh! lightly, lightly tread!Revere the pale still brow,The meekly drooping head,The long hair’s willowy flow.
Ye know not what ye do,That call the slumberer backFrom the world unseen by youUnto life’s dim, faded track.
Her soul is far away,In her childhood’s land perchance,Where her young sisters play,Where shines her mother’s glance.
Some old sweet native soundHer spirit haply weaves;A harmony profoundOf woods with all their leaves;
A murmur of the sea,A laughing tone of streams:--Long may her sojourn beIn the music-land of dreams!
Each voice of love is there,Each gleam of beauty fled,Each lost one still more fair--Oh! lightly, lightly tread!
Words in this poem
- enshroud v. t.
- To cover with, or as with, a shroud; to shroud. Churchill.
- revere v. t.
- To regard with reverence, or profound respect and affection, mingled with awe or fear; to venerate; to reverence; to honor in estimation. [L. revereri; pref. re- re- + vereri to fear, perh. akin to E. wary: cf. F. révérer.]
- meekly adv.
- In a meek manner.
- willowy a.
- Abounding with willows.
- slumberer n.
- One who slumbers; a sleeper.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- sojourn v. i.
- To dwell for a time; to dwell or live in a place as a temporary resident or as a stranger, not considering the place as a permanent habitation; to delay; to tarry. [OE. sojornen, sojournen, OF. sojorner, sejorner, F. séjourner, fr. L. sub under, about + diurnus belonging to the day. See Journal, Diurnal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sleeper is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Sleeper, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-sleeper.html, id L19528.
Form and metre
The Sleeper is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB treadA · sleepB · shedA · weepB
- 2 -A-A heaven · cloudA · given · enshroudA
- 3 A-A- treadA · brow · headA · flow
- 4 ABAB doA · backB · youA · trackB
- 5 ABAB awayA · perchanceB · playA · glanceB
- 6 ABAB soundA · weavesB · profoundA · leavesB
- 7 ABAB seaA · streamsB · beA · dreamsB
- 8 ABAB thereA · fledB · fairA · treadB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! lightly, lightly tread! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| A holy thing is sleep, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| On the worn spirit shed, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And eyes that wake to weep. | 6 | ······ |
| A holy thing from heaven, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| A gracious dewy cloud, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| A covering mantle given | 6 | ·/˘/˘/ |
| The weary to enshroud. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Oh! lightly, lightly tread! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Revere the pale still brow, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| The meekly drooping head, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The long hair’s willowy flow. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ye know not what ye do, | 6 | ······ |
| That call the slumberer back | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| From the world unseen by you | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Unto life’s dim, faded track. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Her soul is far away, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| In her childhood’s land perchance, | 7 | ··/··˘/ |
| Where her young sisters play, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where shines her mother’s glance. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Some old sweet native sound | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her spirit haply weaves; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| A harmony profound | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| Of woods with all their leaves; | 6 | ······ |
| A murmur of the sea, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A laughing tone of streams:-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Long may her sojourn be | 6 | ···/˘· |
| In the music-land of dreams! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Each voice of love is there, | 6 | ······ |
| Each gleam of beauty fled, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Each lost one still more fair-- | 6 | ······ |
| Oh! lightly, lightly tread! | 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.