Come When I Sleep
Oh! when I sleep, come near my resting-place,As Laura came to bless her poet's heart,And let thy breath in passing touch my face--At once a spaceMy lips will part.
And on my brow where too long weighed supremeA vision--haply spent now--black as night,Let thy look as a star arise and beam--At once my dreamWill seem of light.
Then press my lips, where plays a flame of bliss--A pure and holy love-light--and forsakeThe angel for the woman in a kiss--At once, I wis,My soul will wake!
Words in this poem
- laura n.
- A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior. C. Kingsley.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Come When I Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, Come When I Sleep, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/come-when-i-sleep.html, id L26786.
Form and metre
Come When I Sleep is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAAB placeA · heartB · faceA · spaceA · partB
- 2 ABAAB supremeA · nightB · beamA · dreamA · lightB
- 3 ABAAB blissA · forsakeB · kissA · wisA · wakeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! when I sleep, come near my resting-place, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As Laura came to bless her poet's heart, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And let thy breath in passing touch my face-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| At once a space | 4 | ···· |
| My lips will part. | 4 | ···· |
| And on my brow where too long weighed supreme | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A vision--haply spent now--black as night, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Let thy look as a star arise and beam-- | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| At once my dream | 4 | ···· |
| Will seem of light. | 4 | ···· |
| Then press my lips, where plays a flame of bliss-- | 10 | ·········· |
| A pure and holy love-light--and forsake | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The angel for the woman in a kiss-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| At once, I wis, | 4 | ···· |
| My soul will wake! | 4 | ···· |
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.