Half-waking
Half-waking
Original Text
Flower Pieces and other poems ... With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London: Reeves and Turner, 1888): 107. del A446 F56 1888 Fisher Rare Book Library
1I thought it was the little bed
2 I slept in long ago;
3A straight white curtain at the head,
4 And two smooth knobs below.
5I thought I saw the nursery fire,
6 And in a chair well-known
7My mother sat, and did not tire
8 With reading all alone.
9If I should make the slightest sound
10 To show that I'm awake,
11She'd rise, and lap the blankets round,
12 My pillow softly shake;
13Kiss me, and turn my face to see
14 The shadows on the wall,
16 Till fast asleep I fall.
17But this is not my little bed;
18 That time is far away;
19With strangers now I live instead,
20 From dreary day to day.
Notes
15] Rousseau's Dream: unidentified, but related possibly to Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), French philosopher, defender of the natural, primitive innocence in man, and author of the autobiography Les Rêveries [dreams?] du promeneur solitaire. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1888
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1999.
Rhyme