Analysis of The Dream Star

George Essex Evans 1863 (London) – 1909 (Toowoomba)



Whisper, O wings of the wind! Sing me your song, O sea!
Grey is the weary world, and grey is the heart of me!
Into my shadowy heart pierce like the star of old,
Pearl of the tender dawn, kissed by the trembling gold!

Sing me the hope made sure, sing me the heart made strong!
Give me the battle-fire, give me the bugle-song

Onward ever and on, O swift, green bird of the sun;
Ever a vaster goal for the goal that thy wings have won.

Keen with a tireless beat is the rush of thy wings that soar;
But keener, swifter than thee is the vision that flies before.

What though we die forgot and sad for the song unsung!
Fresh from her thousand deaths ever the world is young.

For, ever the dream-world floats, a light on a misty bar,
And ever the grey earth follows the wake of that pilot star;

Follows a spirit ship that bears o’er a spirit sea
Shadows of thoughts unborn, phantoms of destiny.

Silver the giant sails loom through the amber haze,
And ever the helmsman Hope steers for the halcyon days;

And ever the voices call, out of the golden light,
Into the dreamer’s heart, sad in the lonely night—

Call like the ring of steel and thrill as of bugles blown,
Splendours of days to be, flaming in skies unknown.

Deep in the eastern skies glimmers that phantom star;
Dim in the distance dies the surge of the world afar.

Ah, but like broken swords, scattered along the van,
Perish the outpost souls that fall in the march of Man!

Ah, but they die not so; out of their ashes then
Flowers of immortal Love spring in the hearts of men!

Wings of the swift green Earth, ever and ever young—
This is the whispered word the wind of the morning sung!

This is the rune I heard flung by the ocean old,
Pearl of the tender dawn, kissed by the trembling gold!


Scheme aabB cc dd ee ff gg aa hh ii jj gg kk ll ff bB
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101111111 1101010110111 0111001110111 1101011101001 110111110111 1101010110101 1010011111101 1001110111111 110100110111111 110101110101101 1111010110101 110101100111 11001110110101 010011100111101 1001011110101 11111101100 100101110101 0100111101001 0100101110101 010101100101 1101110111101 11111100101 100101101101 1001010110101 111101100101 100111100111 111111111101 1010101100111 110111100101 1101010110101 110111110101 1101011101001
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,743
Words 336
Sentences 17
Stanzas 15
Stanza Lengths 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 42
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 90
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

1:40 min read
71

George Essex Evans

George Essex Evans was an Australian poet. more…

All George Essex Evans poems | George Essex Evans Books

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