Slumber Song for Sunalini
Where the golden, glowingChampak-buds are blowing,By the swiftly-flowing streams,Now, when day is dying,There are fairies flyingScattering a cloud of dreams.
Slumber-spirits wingingThro' the forest singing,Flutter hither bringing soon,Baby-visions sheenyFor my Sunalini . . .Hush thee, O my pretty moon!
Sweet, the saints shall bless thee . . .Hush, mine arms caress thee,Hush, my heart doth press thee, sleep,Till the red dawn dancesBreaking thy soft trances,Sleep, my Sunalini, sleep!
Words in this poem
- sheeny a.
- Bright; shining; radiant; sheen.
- 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,]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Slumber Song for Sunalini is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (London: William Heinemann; New York: John Lane Company, 1912), Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, Slumber Song for Sunalini, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/slumber-song-for-sunalini.html, id L27538.
Form and metre
Slumber Song for Sunalini is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 AABCCB glowingA · blowingA · streamsB · dyingC · flyingC · dreamsB
- 2 AABCCB wingingA · singingA · soonB · sheenyC · sunaliniC · moonB
- 3 AABCCB theeA · theeA · sleepB · dancesC · trancesC · 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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where the golden, glowing | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Champak-buds are blowing, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| By the swiftly-flowing streams, | 6 | ··/˘/· |
| Now, when day is dying, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| There are fairies flying | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Scattering a cloud of dreams. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Slumber-spirits winging | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Thro' the forest singing, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Flutter hither bringing soon, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Baby-visions sheeny | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| For my Sunalini . . . | 6 | ······ |
| Hush thee, O my pretty moon! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sweet, the saints shall bless thee . . . | 6 | ······ |
| Hush, mine arms caress thee, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Hush, my heart doth press thee, sleep, | 7 | ······· |
| Till the red dawn dances | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Breaking thy soft trances, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Sleep, my Sunalini, 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.