On Seeing My Wife and Two Children Sleeping in the Same Chamber
And has the earth lost its so spacious round,The sky its blue circumference above,That in this little chamber there is foundBoth earth and heaven--my universe of love!All that my God can give me, or remove,Here sleeping, save myself, in mimic death.Sweet that in this small compass I behoveTo live their living and to breathe their breath!Almost I wish that, with one common sigh,We might resign all mundane care and strife,And seek together that transcendent sky,Where Father, Mother, Children, Husband, Wife,Together pant in everlasting life!
Words in this poem
- behove v.
- , and derivatives. See Behoove, & c.
- mundane a.
- Of or pertaining to the world; worldly; earthly; terrestrial; as, the mundane sphere. [L. mundanus, fr. mundus the world, an implement, toilet adornments, or dress; cf. mundus, a., clean, neat, Skr. mansds to adorn, dress, mansdsa adornment. Cf. M]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- pant v. i.
- To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp. [Cf. F. panteler to gasp for breath, OF. panteisier to be breathless, F. pantois out of breath; perh. akin to E. phantom, the verb prob. orig. meaning, to have t]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Seeing My Wife and Two Children Sleeping in the Same Chamber is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; 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 Hood, On Seeing My Wife and Two Children Sleeping in the Same Chamber, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/on-seeing-my-wife-and-two-children-sleeping-in-the-same-cham.html, id L20096.
Form and metre
On Seeing My Wife and Two Children Sleeping in the Same Chamber is 13 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCDEDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABABBCBCDEDEE roundA · aboveB · foundA · loveB · removeB · deathC · behoveB · breathC · sighD · strifeE · skyD · wifeE · lifeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And has the earth lost its so spacious round, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The sky its blue circumference above, | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| That in this little chamber there is found | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Both earth and heaven--my universe of love! | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| All that my God can give me, or remove, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Here sleeping, save myself, in mimic death. | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| Sweet that in this small compass I behove | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| To live their living and to breathe their breath! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Almost I wish that, with one common sigh, | 10 | /······/˘· |
| We might resign all mundane care and strife, | 10 | ··˘/·˘/··· |
| And seek together that transcendent sky, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Where Father, Mother, Children, Husband, Wife, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Together pant in everlasting life! | 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.