Analysis of Sonnet XXXIX: Sleepless Dreams
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
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 are
Quickened 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 thee
Some shadowy palpitating grove that bears
Rest for man's eyes and music for his ears?
O lonely night! art thou not known to me,
A thicket hung with masks of mockery
And watered with the wasteful warmth of tears?
Scheme | ABBAACBADEFDDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111100111 1101010111 111101111 1110110101 100101101 1111111101 0111111101 1101011111 1111011101 11001000111 1111010111 1101111111 0101111100 0101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 625 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 496 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 118 Views
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"Sonnet XXXIX: Sleepless Dreams" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7701/sonnet-xxxix%3A--sleepless-dreams>.
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