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

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. more…

All Dante Gabriel Rossetti poems | Dante Gabriel Rossetti Books

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