Love and Sleep
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
Love and Sleep
Lying asleep between the strokes of night
I saw my love lean over my sad bed,
Pale as the duskiest lily's leaf or head,
Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,
Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,
But perfect-coloured without white or red.
And her lips opened amorously, and said -
I wist not what, saving one word - Delight.
And all her face was honey to my mouth,
And all her body pasture to mine eyes;
The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire
The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,
The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs
And glittering eyelids of my soul's desire.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 115 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | X ABBAABBA CDECDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 851 |
Words | 119 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 8, 6 |
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"Love and Sleep" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/1352/love-and-sleep>.
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