Beside the Bed
Someone has shut the shining eyes, straightened and foldedThe wandering hands quietly covering the unquiet breast:So, smoothed and silenced you lie, like a child, not againto be questioned or scolded;But, for you, not one of us believes that this is rest.
Not so to close the windows down can cloud and deadenThe blue beyond: or to screen the wavering flame subdueits breath:Why, if I lay my cheek to your cheek, your grey lips, likedawn, would quiver and redden,Breaking into the old, odd smile at this fraud of death.
Because all night you have not turned to us or spokenIt is time for you to wake; your dreams were never very deep:I, for one, have seen the thin, bright, twisted threads of themdimmed suddenly and broken,This is only a most piteous pretence of sleep!
Words in this poem
- unquiet v. t.
- To disquiet. Ld. Herbert. [1st pref. un- + quiet.]
- pretence n.
- The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. [LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beside the Bed is in the public domain. This text is taken from The farmer's bride, Project Gutenberg ebook #71305; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte Mew, Beside the Bed, in The Farmer's Bride (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71305, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mew-farmers-bride/beside-the-bed.html, id L02458.
Form and metre
Beside the Bed is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AB-AB foldedA · breastB · again · scoldedA · restB
- 2 A-B-AB deadenA · subdue · breathB · like · reddenA · deathB
- 3 AB-AB spokenA · deepB · them · brokenA · 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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Someone has shut the shining eyes, straightened and folded | 13 | /····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The wandering hands quietly covering the unquiet breast: | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| So, smoothed and silenced you lie, like a child, not again | 13 | ···/˘······˘/ |
| to be questioned or scolded; | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| But, for you, not one of us believes that this is rest. | 13 | ·······˘/···· |
| Not so to close the windows down can cloud and deaden | 13 | ·····/˘····/˘ |
| The blue beyond: or to screen the wavering flame subdue | 13 | ········/˘·˘/ |
| its breath: | 2 | ·· |
| Why, if I lay my cheek to your cheek, your grey lips, like | 13 | ············· |
| dawn, would quiver and redden, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Breaking into the old, odd smile at this fraud of death. | 13 | /˘··········· |
| Because all night you have not turned to us or spoken | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| It is time for you to wake; your dreams were never very deep: | 14 | ··········//˘· |
| I, for one, have seen the thin, bright, twisted threads of them | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| dimmed suddenly and broken, | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| This is only a most piteous pretence of sleep! | 13 | ··/˘··/˘˘···· |
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.