Sick Leave
When I'm asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,--They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.While the dim charging breakers of the stormBellow and drone and rumble overhead,Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine."Why are you here with all your watches ended?From Ypres to Frise we sought you in the Line."In bitter safety I awake, unfriended;And while the dawn begins with slashing rainI think of the Battalion in the mud."When are you going out to them again?Are they not still your brothers through our blood?"
Words in this poem
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
- unfriended a.
- Wanting friends; not befriended; not countenanced or supported.
- battalion n.
- A body of troops; esp. a body of troops or an army in battle array. [F. bataillon, fr. It. battaglione. See Battalia.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sick Leave is in the public domain. This text is taken from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8930; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, Sick Leave, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/sick-leave.html, id L04711.
Form and metre
Sick Leave is 13 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCDCDEFEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% 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 ABABBCDCDEFEF warmA · deadB · stormA · overheadB · bedB · mineC · endedD · lineC · unfriendedD · rainE · mudF · againE · bloodF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I'm asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,-- | 10 | ··˘//˘···· |
| They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| While the dim charging breakers of the storm | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Bellow and drone and rumble overhead, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘/ |
| Out of the gloom they gather about my bed. | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| "Why are you here with all your watches ended? | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| From Ypres to Frise we sought you in the Line." | 10 | ·········· |
| In bitter safety I awake, unfriended; | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| And while the dawn begins with slashing rain | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| I think of the Battalion in the mud. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| "When are you going out to them again? | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Are they not still your brothers through our blood?" | 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.