The Death-Bed
We watch'd her breathing through the night.Her breathing soft and low,As in her breast the wave of lifeKept heaving to and fro.
So silently we seem'd to speak,So slowly moved about,As we had lent her half our powersTo eke her living out.
Our very hopes belied our fears,Our fears our hopes belied--We thought her dying when she slept,And sleeping when she died.
For when the morn came dim and sad,And chill with early showers,Her quiet eyelids closed--she hadAnother morn than ours.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Death-Bed 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, The Death-Bed, 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/the-death-bed.html, id L20090.
Form and metre
The Death-Bed is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A night · lowA · life · froA
- 2 -A-A speak · aboutA · powers · outA
- 3 -A-A fears · beliedA · slept · diedA
- 4 ABAB sadA · showersB · hadA · oursB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We watch'd her breathing through the night. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Her breathing soft and low, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As in her breast the wave of life | 8 | ········ |
| Kept heaving to and fro. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So silently we seem'd to speak, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| So slowly moved about, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As we had lent her half our powers | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| To eke her living out. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Our very hopes belied our fears, | 10 | /˘/˘·˘//˘· |
| Our fears our hopes belied-- | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| We thought her dying when she slept, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And sleeping when she died. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For when the morn came dim and sad, | 8 | ········ |
| And chill with early showers, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Her quiet eyelids closed--she had | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Another morn than ours. | 7 | ˘/˘··/˘ |
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.