Analysis of Fragment Of A Sleep-Song



SISTER Simplicitie,  
Sing, sing a song to me,  
Sing me to sleep.  
Some legend low and long,  
Slow as the summer song
Of the dull Deep.  

Some legend long and low,  
Whose equal ebb and flow  
To and fro creep  
On the dim marge of gray
’Tween the soul’s night and day,  
Washing “awake” away  
Into “asleep.”  

Some legend low and long,  
Never so weak or strong
As to let go  
While it can hold this heart  
Withouten sigh or smart,  
Or as to hold this heart  
When it sighs “No.”

Some long low swaying song,  
As the sway’d shadow long  
Sways to and fro  
Where, thro’ the crowing cocks,  
And by the swinging clocks,
Some weary mother rocks  
Some weary woe.  

Sing up and down to me  
Like a dream-boat at sea,  
So, and still so,
Float through the “then” and “when,”  
Rising from when to then,  
Sinking from then to when  
While the waves go.  

Low and high, high and low,
Now and then, then and now,  
Mow, now;  
And when the now is then, and when the then is now,  
And when the low is high, and when the high is low,  
Low, low;
Let me float, let the boat  
Go, go;  
Let me glide, let me slide  
Slow, slow;  
Gliding boat, sliding boat,
Slow, slow;  
Glide away, slide away  
So, so.


Scheme abcDdc eecfafc Ddeaaae ddeggge bbehhhe eiiieeaeaEaEfe
Poetic Form
Metre 101 110111 1111 110101 110101 1011 110101 110101 1011 101111 101101 100101 0101 110101 101111 1111 111111 1111 111111 1111 111101 10111 1101 110101 010101 110101 1101 110111 101111 1011 110101 101111 101111 1011 101101 101101 11 010111010111 010111010111 11 111101 11 111111 11 101101 11 101101 11
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,201
Words 230
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 14
Lines Amount 48
Letters per line (avg) 17
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 140
Words per stanza (avg) 38
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:09 min read
22

Sydney Thompson Dobell

Sydney Thompson Dobell, English poet and critic, was born at Cranbrook, Kent. more…

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