Lyric Poem · Love
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1847
1Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
2Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
3Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
4The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.
5Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
6And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.
7Now lies the earth all Danaë to the stars,
8And all thy heart lies open unto me.
9Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
10A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.
11Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
12And slips into the bosom of the lake:
13So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
14Into my bosom and be lost in me.
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“Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson — quilloak.com/poems/now-sleeps-the-crimson-petal
Quick facts
- Poem
- Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
- Poet
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Published
- 1847
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, For Her
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892
- Source record
- Representative Poetry Online (University of Toronto)Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal; The Princess: A Medley (London: Edward Moxon, 1847)
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-10-29
- Publication record
- The Princess: A Medley (London: Edward Moxon, 1847)
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 968c1198153017a5…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.