Lullaby
Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you,Drift, and so lightly, on crystalline streams.Wrapped in its perfumes, the darkness is holding you;Starlight bespangles the way of your dreams.Chorus the nightingales, wistfully amorous;Blessedly quiet, the blare of the day.All the sweet hours may your visions be glamorous,--Sleep, pretty lady, as long as you may.
Sleep, pretty lady, the night shall be still for you;Silvered and silent, it watches your rest.Each little breeze, in its eagerness, will for youMurmur the melodies ancient and blest.So in the midnight does happiness capture us;Morning is dim with another day's tears.Give yourself sweetly to images rapturous,--Sleep, pretty lady, a couple of years.
Sleep, pretty lady, the world awaits day with you;Girlish and golden, the slender young moon.Grant the fond darkness its mystical way with you,Morning returns to us ever too soon.Roses unfold, in their loveliness, all for you;Blossom the lilies for hope of your glance.When you're awake, all the men go and fall for you,--Sleep, pretty lady, and give me a chance.
Words in this poem
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- blessedly adv.
- Happily; fortunately; joyfully.
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
- 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,]
- girlish a.
- Like, or characteristic of, a girl; of or pertaining to girlhood; innocent; artless; immature; weak; as, girlish ways; girlish grief.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lullaby is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enough Rope: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #68353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dorothy Parker, Lullaby, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/lullaby.html, id L27386.
Form and metre
Lullaby is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in dactylic 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 ABABCDCD youA · streamsB · youA · dreamsB · amorousC · dayD · glamorousC · mayD
- 2 ABABCDCD youA · restB · youA · blestB · usC · tearsD · rapturousC · yearsD
- 3 ABABACAC youA · moonB · youA · soonB · youA · glanceC · youA · chanceC
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you, | 12 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| Drift, and so lightly, on crystalline streams. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Wrapped in its perfumes, the darkness is holding you; | 12 | ···˘/·/˘·/˘· |
| Starlight bespangles the way of your dreams. | 9 | /········ |
| Chorus the nightingales, wistfully amorous; | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Blessedly quiet, the blare of the day. | 8 | /˘/····· |
| All the sweet hours may your visions be glamorous,-- | 11 | ···/··/˘·/˘ |
| Sleep, pretty lady, as long as you may. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Sleep, pretty lady, the night shall be still for you; | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| Silvered and silent, it watches your rest. | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Each little breeze, in its eagerness, will for you | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| Murmur the melodies ancient and blest. | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘·· |
| So in the midnight does happiness capture us; | 11 | ···/··/˘/˘· |
| Morning is dim with another day's tears. | 10 | /˘···˘/˘·· |
| Give yourself sweetly to images rapturous,-- | 10 | ·˘//˘·/˘/˘ |
| Sleep, pretty lady, a couple of years. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Sleep, pretty lady, the world awaits day with you; | 12 | ·/˘/˘··˘/··· |
| Girlish and golden, the slender young moon. | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Grant the fond darkness its mystical way with you, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Morning returns to us ever too soon. | 9 | /˘˘/··/·· |
| Roses unfold, in their loveliness, all for you; | 12 | /˘˘/··/˘˘··· |
| Blossom the lilies for hope of your glance. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| When you're awake, all the men go and fall for you,-- | 12 | ··˘/········ |
| Sleep, pretty lady, and give me a chance. | 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.