Sleep at Sea by Christina Georgina Rossetti
A ship drives toward rocks and a nearing tempest while the men aboard sleep, dreaming of effort, pleasure, and peaceful homes. Spirits repeatedly call for them to wake, then depart in grief; the sleepers dream of long lives as they sleep to death.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Allegorical Poetry, Narrative Poetry · 675 words
First lines
Sound the deep waters: -- / Who shall sound that deep? -- / Too short the plummet, / And the watchmen sleep. / Some dream of effort / Up a toilsome steep; / Some dream of pasture grounds / For harmless sheep.
White shapes flit to and fro / From mast to mast; / They feel the distant tempest / That nears them fast: / Great rocks are straight ahead, / Great shoals not past; / They shout to one another / Upon the blast.
Genres
- Allegorical Poetry — The dangerous voyage, prolonged dreams, and closing judgment of vanity connect the sleepers' fate with a warning about heedlessness.
- Narrative Poetry — Rhymed stanzas follow a drifting ship, the spirits' repeated warnings and departure, and the sleepers' deaths.
Tags
ships · sleep · dreams · spirits · storms · mortality · vanity
What this Textopian page supports
Sleep at Sea is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Allegorical Poetry, Narrative Poetry
- Length: 675 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for Sleep at Sea by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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