Sleep
Come, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceivingLock me in delight awhile;Let some pleasing dreams beguileAll my fancies; that from thenceI may feel an influenceAll my powers of care bereaving!
Though but a shadow, but a sliding,Let me know some little joy!We that suffer long annoyAre contented with a thoughtThrough an idle fancy wrought:O let my joys have some abiding!
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Fletcher, Sleep, in Poems (1579–1625), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-john-fletcher/sleep.html, id L16020.
Form and metre
Sleep is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBCCA. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABBCCA deceivingA · awhileB · beguileB · thenceC · influenceC · bereavingA
- 2 ABBCCA slidingA · joyB · annoyB · thoughtC · wroughtC · abidingA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Lock me in delight awhile; | 7 | ···˘/˘/ |
| Let some pleasing dreams beguile | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| All my fancies; that from thence | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I may feel an influence | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| All my powers of care bereaving! | 8 | ··/··˘/˘ |
| Though but a shadow, but a sliding, | 9 | ···/···/˘ |
| Let me know some little joy! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| We that suffer long annoy | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Are contented with a thought | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Through an idle fancy wrought: | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| O let my joys have some abiding! | 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.