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 . . .

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

31 sec read
327

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXX XXXX AXA XXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 532
Words 103
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3

Alfonsina Storni

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

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