Analysis of I Am Going to Sleep

Alfonsina Storni 1892 (Sala Capriasca) – 1938 (Mar del Plata)



Teeth of flowers, hairnet of dew,
hands of herbs, you, perfect wet nurse,
prepare the earthly sheets for me
and the down quilt of weeded moss.

I am going to sleep, my nurse, put me to bed.
Set a lamp at my headboard;
a constellation; whatever you like;
all are good: lower it a bit.

Leave me alone: you hear the buds breaking through . . .
a celestial foot rocks you from above
and a bird traces a pattern for you

so you'll forget . . . Thank you. Oh, one request:
if he telephones again
tell him not to keep trying for I have left . . .


Scheme AXXX XXXX AXA XXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1110111 11110111 01010111 00111101 111011111111 101111 00101011 11110101 11011101101 0010111101 0011001011 1101111101 111001 11111101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 532
Words 103
Sentences 14
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 100
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

31 sec read
338

Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni was one of the most important Argentine and Latin-American poets of the modernist period. more…

All Alfonsina Storni poems | Alfonsina Storni Books

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    Poet George McDonald wrote a two-word poem that reads _____ _____?
    A Let's Go.
    B Good Bye.
    C Come Home.
    D See You!