Lines.—I cannot sleep



I cannot sleep—my nights glide on

    In one unbroken thought of thee;

And when the gloomy shades are gone,

    I start the dawning light to see.

And as I watch the rising morn

    Gain slowly o'er the yielding sky,

And mark another day new born,

    That glows so brightly—yet must die—

I think how all the hopes we cherish

    As transient, though as bright, will be;

And frailest of the hopes that perish

    Were mine, that told of love and thee!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

25 sec read
97

Quick analysis:

Scheme X A X A B C B C D A D A
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 464
Words 83
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Louisa Stuart Costello

Louisa Stuart Costello was a writer on travel and French history. Costello was born in Ireland or Sussex. She resided in Paris, France, near the Seine River. She had no true home, but wandered place to place staying with friends and acquaintances. With her brother Dudley Costello, also a well known for his travel writing, they promoted the copying of illuminated manuscript. She wrote over 100 texts, articles, poems, songs and knew such people as Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore. She was a poet, historian, journalist, painter and novelist. Her father was Colonel James Francis Costello, who died in April 1814 while fighting Napoleon. Costello published Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen, which included her illustrations, and several other popular works of poetry and travel. Her collection Songs of a Stranger was dedicated to William Lisle Bowles. She did not return to France until after her mother sent for her in 1815/18 and then lived chiefly in Paris, where she was a miniature-painter. In 1815 she published The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, etc. She also wrote books of travel, which were very popular, as were her novels, chiefly founded on French history. Another work, published in 1835, is Specimens of the Early Poetry of France. She died in Boulogne sur Mer, France of mouth cancer. more…

All Louisa Stuart Costello poems | Louisa Stuart Costello Books

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