Sleep
Oh! is it Death that comesTo have a foretaste of the whole?To-night the planets and the starsWill glimmer through my window-barsBut will not shine upon my soul!
For I shall lie as deadThough yet I am above the ground;All passionless, with scarce a breath,With hands of rest and eyes of death,I shall be carried swiftly round.
Or if my life should breakThe idle night with doubtful gleams,Through mossy arches will I go,Through arches ruinous and low,And chase the true and false in dreams.
Why should I fall asleep?When I am still upon my bedThe moon will shine, the winds will riseAnd all around and through the skiesThe light clouds travel o'er my head!
O busy, busy things,Ye mock me with your ceaseless life!For all the hidden springs will flowAnd all the blades of grass will growWhen I have neither peace nor strife.
And all the long night throughThe restless streams will hurry by;And round the lands, with endless roar,The white waves fall upon the shore,And bit by bit devour the dry.
Even thus, but silently,Eternity, thy tide shall flow,And side by side with every starThy long-drawn swell shall bear me far,An idle boat with none to row.
My senses fail with sleep;My heart beats thick; the night is noon;And faintly through its misty foldsI hear a drowsy clock that holdsIts converse with the waning moon.
Oh, solemn mysteryThat I should be so closely boundWith neither terror nor constraint,Without a murmur of complaint,And lose myself upon such ground!
Words in this poem
- foretaste n.
- A taste beforehand; enjoyment in advance; anticipation.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- passionless a.
- Void of passion; without anger or emotion; not easily excited; calm.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Sleep, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/sleep.html, id L22411.
Form and metre
Sleep is 45 lines in 9 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 -ABBA comes · wholeA · starsB · barsB · soulA
- 2 -ABBA dead · groundA · breathB · deathB · roundA
- 3 -ABBA break · gleamsA · goB · lowB · dreamsA
- 4 -ABBA asleep · bedA · riseB · skiesB · headA
- 5 -ABBA things · lifeA · flowB · growB · strifeA
- 6 -ABBA through · byA · roarB · shoreB · dryA
- 7 -ABBA silently · flowA · starB · farB · rowA
- 8 -ABBA sleep · noonA · foldsB · holdsB · moonA
- 9 -ABBA mystery · boundA · constraintB · complaintB · groundA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! is it Death that comes | 6 | ······ |
| To have a foretaste of the whole? | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| To-night the planets and the stars | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Will glimmer through my window-bars | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But will not shine upon my soul! | 8 | ········ |
| For I shall lie as dead | 6 | ······ |
| Though yet I am above the ground; | 8 | ········ |
| All passionless, with scarce a breath, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| With hands of rest and eyes of death, | 8 | ········ |
| I shall be carried swiftly round. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or if my life should break | 6 | ······ |
| The idle night with doubtful gleams, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Through mossy arches will I go, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Through arches ruinous and low, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| And chase the true and false in dreams. | 8 | ········ |
| Why should I fall asleep? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| When I am still upon my bed | 8 | ········ |
| The moon will shine, the winds will rise | 8 | ········ |
| And all around and through the skies | 8 | ········ |
| The light clouds travel o'er my head! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O busy, busy things, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Ye mock me with your ceaseless life! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For all the hidden springs will flow | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all the blades of grass will grow | 8 | ········ |
| When I have neither peace nor strife. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all the long night through | 6 | ······ |
| The restless streams will hurry by; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And round the lands, with endless roar, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The white waves fall upon the shore, | 8 | ········ |
| And bit by bit devour the dry. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Even thus, but silently, | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Eternity, thy tide shall flow, | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| And side by side with every star | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy long-drawn swell shall bear me far, | 8 | ········ |
| An idle boat with none to row. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My senses fail with sleep; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My heart beats thick; the night is noon; | 8 | ········ |
| And faintly through its misty folds | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I hear a drowsy clock that holds | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Its converse with the waning moon. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Oh, solemn mystery | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| That I should be so closely bound | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With neither terror nor constraint, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Without a murmur of complaint, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And lose myself upon such ground! | 8 | ···/···· |
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.