The Promise of Sleep
Put the sweet thoughts from out thy mind,The dreams from out thy breast;No joy for thee--but thou shalt findThy rest.
All day I could not work for woe,I could not work nor rest;The trouble drove me to and fro,Like a leaf on the storm’s breast.
Night came and saw my sorrow cease;Sleep in the chamber stole;Peace crept about my limbs, and peaceFell on my stormy soul.
And now I think of only this,--How I again may wooThe gentle sleep--who promisesThat death is gentle too.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Promise of Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, The Promise of Sleep, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/the-promise-of-sleep.html, id L21554.
Form and metre
The Promise of Sleep is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAB mindA · breastB · findA · restB
- 2 ABAB woeA · restB · froA · breastB
- 3 ABAB ceaseA · stoleB · peaceA · soulB
- 4 -A-A this · wooA · promises · tooA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Put the sweet thoughts from out thy mind, | 8 | ········ |
| The dreams from out thy breast; | 6 | ······ |
| No joy for thee--but thou shalt find | 8 | ········ |
| Thy rest. | 2 | ·· |
| All day I could not work for woe, | 8 | ········ |
| I could not work nor rest; | 6 | ······ |
| The trouble drove me to and fro, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Like a leaf on the storm’s breast. | 7 | ······· |
| Night came and saw my sorrow cease; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sleep in the chamber stole; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Peace crept about my limbs, and peace | 8 | ········ |
| Fell on my stormy soul. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And now I think of only this,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How I again may woo | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The gentle sleep--who promises | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| That death is gentle too. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.