Nuptial Sleep
At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:And as the last slow sudden drops are shedFrom sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,So singly flagged the pulses of each heart.Their bosoms sundered, with the opening startOf married flowers to either side outspreadFrom the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red,Fawned on each other where they lay apart.
Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams,And their dreams watched them sink, and slid away.Slowly their souls swam up again, through gleamsOf watered light and dull drowned waifs of day;Till from some wonder of new woods and streamsHe woke, and wondered more: for there she lay.
Words in this poem
- outspread v. t.
- To spread out; to expand; -- usually as a past part. or adj.
- wondered a.
- Having performed wonders; able to perform wonderful things.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nuptial Sleep is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Nuptial Sleep, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/nuptial-sleep.html, id L20926.
Form and metre
Nuptial Sleep is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAABBA smartA · shedB · fledB · heartA · startA · outspreadB · redB · apartA
- 2 ABABAB dreamsA · awayB · gleamsA · dayB · streamsA · layB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And as the last slow sudden drops are shed | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So singly flagged the pulses of each heart. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of married flowers to either side outspread | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red, | 10 | ·········· |
| Fawned on each other where they lay apart. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And their dreams watched them sink, and slid away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Slowly their souls swam up again, through gleams | 10 | /˘····˘/·· |
| Of watered light and dull drowned waifs of day; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Till from some wonder of new woods and streams | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He woke, and wondered more: for there she lay. | 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.