How Sleep the Brave
How sleep the brave, who sink to restBy all their country’s wishes blest!When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,Returns to deck their hallow’d mould,She there shall dress a sweeter sodThan Fancy’s feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,By forms unseen their dirge is sung:There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,To bless the turf that wraps their clay;And Freedom shall a while repairTo dwell a weeping hermit there!
Words in this poem
- hallow v. t.
- To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. halgian, fr. halig holy. See Holy.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- 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,]
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
How Sleep the Brave is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, How Sleep the Brave, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/how-sleep-the-brave.html, id L25238.
Form and metre
How Sleep the Brave is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 99%).
See other poems in iambic 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 AABBCC restA · blestA · coldB · mouldB · sodC · trodC
- 2 AABBCC rungA · sungA · grayB · clayB · repairC · thereC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How sleep the brave, who sink to rest | 8 | ········ |
| By all their country’s wishes blest! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Returns to deck their hallow’d mould, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| She there shall dress a sweeter sod | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By fairy hands their knell is rung, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By forms unseen their dirge is sung: | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To bless the turf that wraps their clay; | 8 | ········ |
| And Freedom shall a while repair | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| To dwell a weeping hermit there! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
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.