Celia, Sleeping or Singing
Roses, in breathing forth their scent,Or stars their borrowed ornament;Nymphs in the watery sphere that move,Or angels in their orbs above;The winged chariot of the light,Or the slow silent wheels of night;The shade which from the swifter sunDoth in a circular motion run,Or souls that their eternal rest do keep,Make far more[30:2] noise than Celia's breath in sleep.
But if the angel which inspiresThis subtle frame[30:3] with active fires,Should mould this[30:4] breath to words, and thoseInto a harmony dispose,The music of this heavenly sphereWould steal each soul out at the ear,And into plants and stones infuseA life that cherubim[30:5] would choose,And with new powers[30:6] invert the laws of fate:Kill those that live, and dead things animate.
Words in this poem
- swifter v. t.
- To tighten, as slack standing rigging, by bringing the opposite shrouds nearer.
- 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]
- cherubim n.
- The Hebrew plural of Cherub.. Cf. Seraphim.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Celia, Sleeping or Singing is in the public domain. This text is taken from Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait., Project Gutenberg ebook #32986; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Stanley, Celia, Sleeping or Singing, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/celia-sleeping-or-singing.html, id L08960.
Form and metre
Celia, Sleeping or Singing is 20 lines in 2 stanzas of 10 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDDEE. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEE scentA · ornamentA · moveB · aboveB · lightC · nightC · sunD · runD · keepE · sleepE
- 2 AABBCCDDEE inspiresA · firesA · thoseB · disposeB · sphereC · earC · infuseD · chooseD · fateE · animateE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Roses, in breathing forth their scent, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Or stars their borrowed ornament; | 8 | ···/·/˘˘ |
| Nymphs in the watery sphere that move, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or angels in their orbs above; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The winged chariot of the light, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Or the slow silent wheels of night; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The shade which from the swifter sun | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Doth in a circular motion run, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or souls that their eternal rest do keep, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Make far more[30:2] noise than Celia's breath in sleep. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But if the angel which inspires | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| This subtle frame[30:3] with active fires, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Should mould this[30:4] breath to words, and those | 8 | ········ |
| Into a harmony dispose, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| The music of this heavenly sphere | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Would steal each soul out at the ear, | 8 | ········ |
| And into plants and stones infuse | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A life that cherubim[30:5] would choose, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And with new powers[30:6] invert the laws of fate: | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Kill those that live, and dead things animate. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.