Sleepless Dreams
Girt in dark growths, yet glimmering with one star,O night desirous as the nights of youth!Why should my heart within thy spell, forsooth,Now beat, as the bride's finger-pulses areQuickened within the girdling golden bar?What wings are these that fan my pillow smooth?And why does Sleep, waved back by Joy and Ruth,Tread softly round and gaze at me from far?
Nay, night deep-leaved! And would Love feign in theeSome shadowy palpitating grove that bearsRest for man's eyes and music for his ears?O lonely night! art thou not known to me,A thicket hung with masks of mockeryAnd watered with the wasteful warmth of tears?
Words in this poem
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
- ruth n.
- Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggedh, hrygedh.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleepless Dreams 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, Sleepless Dreams, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/sleepless-dreams.html, id L20959.
Form and metre
Sleepless Dreams is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 starA · youthB · forsoothB · areA · barA · smoothB · ruthB · farA
- 2 AB-A-B theeA · bearsB · ears · meA · mockery · tearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Girt in dark growths, yet glimmering with one star, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O night desirous as the nights of youth! | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Why should my heart within thy spell, forsooth, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Now beat, as the bride's finger-pulses are | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Quickened within the girdling golden bar? | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| What wings are these that fan my pillow smooth? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And why does Sleep, waved back by Joy and Ruth, | 10 | ·········· |
| Tread softly round and gaze at me from far? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Nay, night deep-leaved! And would Love feign in thee | 10 | ·········· |
| Some shadowy palpitating grove that bears | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘··· |
| Rest for man's eyes and music for his ears? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O lonely night! art thou not known to me, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A thicket hung with masks of mockery | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| And watered with the wasteful warmth of tears? | 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.