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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:09 min read
22

Quick analysis:

Scheme abcDdc eecfafc Ddeaaae ddeggge bbehhhe eiiieeaeaEaEfe
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,201
Words 230
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 14

Sydney Thompson Dobell

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

All Sydney Thompson Dobell poems | Sydney Thompson Dobell Books

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