The City of Sleep
Over the edge of the purple down,Where the single lamplight gleams.Know ye the road to the Merciful TownThat is hard by the Sea of Dreams--Where the poor may lay their wrongs away,And the sick may forget to-weep?But we--pity us! Oh, pity us!We wakeful; ah, pity us!--We must go back with Policeman Day--Back from the City of Sleep!
Weary they turn from the scroll and crown,Fetter and prayer and plough--They that go up to the Merciful Town,For her gates are closing now.It is their right in the Baths of NightBody and soul to steep,But we--pity us! ah, pity us!We wakeful; oh, pity us!--We must go back with Policeman Day--Back from the City of Sleep!
Over the edge of the purple down,Ere the tender dreams begin,Look--we may look--at the Merciful TownsBut we may not enter in!Outcasts all, from her guarded wallBack to our watch we creep:We--pity us! ah, pity us!We wakeful; oh, pity us!--We that go back with Policeman Day--Back from the City of Sleep!
Words in this poem
- lamplight n.
- Light from a lamp.
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The City of Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, The City of Sleep, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-city-of-sleep.html, id L20386.
Form and metre
The City of Sleep is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 ABABCDEECD downA · gleamsB · townA · dreamsB · awayC · weepD · usE · usE · dayC · sleepD
- 2 ABAB-CDD-C crownA · ploughB · townA · nowB · night · steepC · usD · usD · day · sleepC
- 3 AA-A-BCC-B downA · beginA · towns · inA · wall · creepB · usC · usC · day · sleepB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Over the edge of the purple down, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where the single lamplight gleams. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Know ye the road to the Merciful Town | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That is hard by the Sea of Dreams-- | 8 | ········ |
| Where the poor may lay their wrongs away, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And the sick may forget to-weep? | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But we--pity us! Oh, pity us! | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| We wakeful; ah, pity us!-- | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| We must go back with Policeman Day-- | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Back from the City of Sleep! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Weary they turn from the scroll and crown, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Fetter and prayer and plough-- | 6 | /˘···· |
| They that go up to the Merciful Town, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| For her gates are closing now. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| It is their right in the Baths of Night | 9 | ········· |
| Body and soul to steep, | 6 | /˘···· |
| But we--pity us! ah, pity us! | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| We must go back with Policeman Day-- | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Back from the City of Sleep! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Over the edge of the purple down, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ere the tender dreams begin, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Look--we may look--at the Merciful Towns | 9 | ······/˘· |
| But we may not enter in! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Outcasts all, from her guarded wall | 8 | /····/˘· |
| Back to our watch we creep: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| We--pity us! ah, pity us! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| We that go back with Policeman Day-- | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Back from the City of Sleep! | 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.