To a Sleeping Child II
Thine eyelids slept so beauteously, I deem'dNo eyes could wake so beautiful as they:Thy rosy cheeks in such still slumbers lay,I loved their peacefulness, nor ever dream'dOf dimples:--for those parted lips so seem'd,I never thought a smile could sweetlier play,Nor that so graceful life could chase awayThy graceful death,--till those blue eyes upbeam'd.Now slumber lies in dimpled eddies drown'dAnd roses bloom more rosily for joy,And odorous silence ripens into sound,And fingers move to sound.--All-beauteous boy!How thou dost waken into smiles, and prove,If not more lovely thou art more like Love!
Words in this poem
- rosily adv.
- In a rosy manner. M. Arnold.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Sleeping Child II 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, To a Sleeping Child II, 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/to-a-sleeping-child-ii.html, id L20052.
Form and metre
To a Sleeping Child II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. 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 ABBAABBACDCDEE deem'dA · theyB · layB · dream'dA · seem'dA · playB · awayB · upbeam'dA · drown'dC · joyD · soundC · boyD · proveE · loveE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thine eyelids slept so beauteously, I deem'd | 10 | ·/········ |
| No eyes could wake so beautiful as they: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Thy rosy cheeks in such still slumbers lay, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I loved their peacefulness, nor ever dream'd | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Of dimples:--for those parted lips so seem'd, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I never thought a smile could sweetlier play, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Nor that so graceful life could chase away | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thy graceful death,--till those blue eyes upbeam'd. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Now slumber lies in dimpled eddies drown'd | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And roses bloom more rosily for joy, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| And odorous silence ripens into sound, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And fingers move to sound.--All-beauteous boy! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| How thou dost waken into smiles, and prove, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If not more lovely thou art more like Love! | 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.