Conscious
His fingers wake, and flutter up the bed.His eyes come open with a pull of will,Helped by the yellow may-flowers by his head.A blind-cord drawls across the window-sill . . .How smooth the floor of the ward is! what a rug!And who's that talking, somewhere out of sight?Why are they laughing? What's inside that jug?"Nurse! Doctor!" "Yes; all right, all right."
But sudden dusk bewilders all the air--There seems no time to want a drink of water.Nurse looks so far away. And everywhereMusic and roses burnt through crimson slaughter.Cold; cold; he's cold; and yet so hot:And there's no light to see the voices by--No time to dream, and ask--he knows not what.
Words in this poem
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Conscious is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1034; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wilfred Owen, Conscious, in Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1034, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/owen-poems/conscious.html, id L04681.
Form and metre
Conscious is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 ABABCDCD bedA · willB · headA · sillB · rugC · sightD · jugC · rightD
- 2 ABAB--- airA · waterB · everywhereA · slaughterB · hot · by · what
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His fingers wake, and flutter up the bed. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| His eyes come open with a pull of will, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Helped by the yellow may-flowers by his head. | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| A blind-cord drawls across the window-sill . . . | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| How smooth the floor of the ward is! what a rug! | 11 | ··········· |
| And who's that talking, somewhere out of sight? | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Why are they laughing? What's inside that jug? | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| "Nurse! Doctor!" "Yes; all right, all right." | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But sudden dusk bewilders all the air-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| There seems no time to want a drink of water. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Nurse looks so far away. And everywhere | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Music and roses burnt through crimson slaughter. | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Cold; cold; he's cold; and yet so hot: | 8 | ········ |
| And there's no light to see the voices by-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| No time to dream, and ask--he knows not what. | 10 | ·········· |
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.