Analysis of Ode to Sleep



On this my pensive pillow, gentle Sleep!
Descend, in all thy downy plumage drest:
Wipe with thy wing these eyes that wake to weep,
And place thy crown of poppies on my breast.

O steep my senses in oblivion's balm,
And sooth my throbbing pulse with lenient hand;
This tempest of my boiling blood becalm!
Despair grows mild at thy supreme command.

Yet ah! in vain, familiar with the gloom,
And sadly toiling through the tedious night,
I seek sweet slumber, while that virgin bloom,
For ever hovering, haunts my wretched sight.

Nor would the dawning day my sorrows charm:
Black midnight and the blaze of noon alike
To me appear, while with uplifted arm
Death stands prepar'd, but still delays, to strike.


Scheme ABAB CBCB DBDB EFEF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1111010101 0101110101 1111111111 0111110111 11110011 01110111001 1101110101 0111110101 1101010101 01010101001 1111011101 11010011101 1101011101 110011101 1101111001 1101110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 709
Words 125
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 139
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

38 sec read
106

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