Analysis of 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.


Scheme X ABBAABBA CDECDE
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 101 1001010111 1111110111 11011111 1101111111 1111001111 1011001111 00110101 1111101101 0101110111 0101010111 01110101110 01001110101 0111010101 01001111010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 851
Words 119
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 6
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 166
Words per stanza (avg) 39
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 05, 2023

36 sec read
115

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho ("Sapphics"), Anactoria ("Anactoria"), Jesus ("Hymn to Proserpine": Galilaee, La. "Galilean") and Catullus ("To Catullus"). more…

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