Analysis of Dreams



What dreams we have and how they fly
Like rosy clouds across the sky;
Of wealth, of fame, of sure success,
Of love that comes to cheer and bless;
And how they wither, how they fade,
The waning wealth, the jilting jade -
The fame that for a moment gleams,
Then flies forever, -dreams, ah -dreams!

O burning doubt and long regret
O tears with which our eyes are wet,
Heart-throbs, heart-aches, the glut of pain,
The somber cloud, the bitter rain,
You were not of those dreams - ah! well,
Your full fruition who can tell?
Wealth, fame, and love, ah! love that beams
Upon our souls, all dreams - ah! dreams.


Scheme AABBCCDD EEFFGGDD
Poetic Form
Metre 11110111 11010101 11111101 11111101 01110111 0101011 01110101 11010111 11010101 111110111 11110111 01010101 10111111 11010111 11011111 011011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 596
Words 115
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 228
Words per stanza (avg) 57
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

34 sec read
759

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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