Sleeping Together
Sleeping together ... how tired you were ...How warm our room ... how the firelight spreadOn walls and ceiling and great white bed!We spoke in whispers as children do,And now it was I—and then it was youSlept a moment, to wake—“My dear,I’m not at all sleepy,” one of us said...
Was it a thousand years ago?I woke in your arms—you were sound asleep—And heard the pattering sound of sheep.Softly I slipped to the floor and creptTo the curtained window, then, while you slept,I watched the sheep pass by in the snow.
O flock of thoughts with their shepherd FearShivering, desolate, out in the cold,That entered into my heart to fold!A thousand years ... was it yesterdayWhen we, two children of far away,Clinging close in the darkness, laySleeping together?... How tired you were...
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleeping Together is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, Sleeping Together, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/sleeping-together.html, id L27577.
Form and metre
Sleeping Together is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 -AABB-A were · spreadA · bedA · doB · youB · dear · saidA
- 2 ABBCCA agoA · asleepB · sheepB · creptC · sleptC · snowA
- 3 -AABBB- fear · coldA · foldA · yesterdayB · awayB · layB · were
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping together ... how tired you were ... | 9 | /˘˘/˘·/·· |
| How warm our room ... how the firelight spread | 10 | ··/······· |
| On walls and ceiling and great white bed! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| We spoke in whispers as children do, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| And now it was I—and then it was you | 10 | ·········· |
| Slept a moment, to wake—“My dear, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I’m not at all sleepy,” one of us said... | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Was it a thousand years ago? | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I woke in your arms—you were sound asleep— | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And heard the pattering sound of sheep. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Softly I slipped to the floor and crept | 9 | /˘······· |
| To the curtained window, then, while you slept, | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| I watched the sheep pass by in the snow. | 9 | ········· |
| O flock of thoughts with their shepherd Fear | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Shivering, desolate, out in the cold, | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| That entered into my heart to fold! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| A thousand years ... was it yesterday | 9 | ·/˘···/˘˘ |
| When we, two children of far away, | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| Clinging close in the darkness, lay | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Sleeping together?... How tired you were... | 9 | /˘˘/˘·/·· |
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.