Analysis of Only A Dream
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Only a dream!
Her head is bent
Over the keys of the instrument,
While her trembling fingers go astray
In the foolish tune she tries to play.
He smiles in his heart, though his deep, sad eyes
Never change to a glad surprise
As he finds the answer he seeks confessed
In glowing features, and heaving breast.
Only a dream!
Though the fete is grand,
And a hundred hearts at her command,
She takes no part, for her soul is sick
Of the Coquette's art and the Serpent's trick,--
She someway feels she would like to fling
Her sins away as a robe, and spring
Up like a lily pure and white,
And bloom alone for HIM to-night.
Only a dream
That the fancy weaves.
The lids unfold like the rose's leaves,
And the upraised eyes are moist and mild
As the prayerful eyes of a drowsy child.
Does she remember the spell they once
Wrought in the past a few short months?
Haply not--yet her lover's eyes
Never change to the glad surprise.
Only a dream!
He winds her form
Close in the coil of his curving arm,
And whirls her away in a gust of sound
As wild and sweet as the poets found
In the paradise where the silken tent
Of the Persian blooms in the Orient,--
While ever the chords of the music seem
Whispering sadly,--'Only a dream!'
Scheme | Abxccddee Affgghhii Ajjkkxxdd Axxllbbaa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001 0111 100110100 1010010101 001011111 1101111111 10110101 1110101101 010100101 1001 10111 001011001 111110111 101100101 11111111 010110101 11010101 01011111 1001 10101 010110101 00111101 1010110101 110100111 10010111 1110101 10110101 1001 1101 100111101 0100100111 110110101 001010101 101010010 1100110101 10010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,188 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 236 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 109 Views
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"Only A Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20994/only-a-dream>.
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