Analysis of Queen Oriana's Dream
Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)
On a bank with roses shaded,
Whose sweet scent the violets aided,
Violets whose breath alone
Yields but feeble smell or none,
(Sweeter bed Jove ne'er repos'd on
When his eyes Olympus closed on,)
While o'er head six slaves did hold
Canopy of cloth o' gold,
And two more did music keep,
Which might Juno lull to sleep,
Oriana who was queen
To the mighty Tamerlane,
That was lord of all the land
Between Thrace and Samarchand,
While the noon-tide fervor beam'd,
Mused herself to sleep, and dream'd.
Thus far, in magnific strain,
A young poet sooth'd his vein,
But he had nor prose nor numbers
To express a princess' slumbers.-
Youthful Richard had strange fancies,
Was deep versed in old romances,
And could talk whole hours upon
The great Cham and Prester John,-
Tell the field in which the Sophi
From the Tartar won a trophy-
What he read with such delight of,
Thought he could as eas'ly write of-
But his over-young invention
Kept not pace with brave intention.
Twenty suns did rise and set,
And he could no further get;
But, unable to proceed,
Made a virtue out of need,
And, his labours wiselier deem'd of,
Did omit what the queen dream'd of.
Scheme | AXBCDDEEFFXBXAGG HHIIXXDDJJJJCCKKLLJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111010 111010010 1001101 1110111 1011111 11101011 11011111 1001111 0111101 1110111 0010111 10101 1111101 01101 1011101 1011101 11011 0110111 11111110 1010101 10101110 11101010 01111001 011011 1010101 10101010 11111011 1111111 11101010 11111010 1011101 0111101 1010101 1010111 011111 10110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,117 |
Words | 211 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 20 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 446 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 103 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 99 Views
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"Queen Oriana's Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5370/queen-oriana%27s-dream>.
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