Analysis of A Song Of Dreams
Clark Ashton Smith 1893 (Long Valley Caldera) – 1961 (Pacific Grove)
A voice came to me from the night, and said,
What profit hast thou in thy dreaming
Of the years that are set
And the years yet unrisen?
Hast thou found them tillable lands?
Is there fruit that thou canst pluck therein,
Or any harvest to be mown?
Shalt thou dig aught of gold from the mines of the past,
Or trade for merchandise
In the years where all is rotten?
Are they a sea that will bring thee to any shore,
Or a desert that vergeth upon aught but the waste?
Shalt thou drink from the springs that are emptied,
Or find sustenance in shadows?
What value hath the future given thee?
Is there aught in the days yet dark
That thou canst hold with thy hands?
Are they a fortress
That will afford thee protection
Against the swords of the world?
Is there justice in them
To balance the world's inequity,
Or benefit to outweigh its loss?
Then spake I in answer, saying,
Of my dreams I have made a road,
And my soul goeth out thereon
To that unto which no eye hath opened,
Nor ear become keen to hearken -
To the glories that are shut past all access
Of the keys of sense;
Whose walls are hidden by the air,
And whose doors are concealed with clarity.
And the road is travelled of secret things,
Coming to me from far -
Of bodiless powers,
And beauties without colour or form
Holden by any loveliness seen of earth.
And of my dreams have I builded an inn
Wherein these are as guests.
And unto it come the dead
For a little rest and refuge
From the hollowness of the unharvestable wind,
And the burden of too great space.
The fields of the past are not void to me,
Who harvest with the scythe of thought;
Nor the orchards of future years unfruitful
To the hands of visionings.
I have retrieved from the darkness
The years and the things that were lost,
And they are held in the light of my dreams,
With the spirits of years unborn,
And of things yet bodiless.
As in an hospitable house,
They shall live while the dreams abide.
Scheme | ABXCDCCXXCXXXXEXDFCXXEX BXCXCXXXEXXXXXCXAXXX EXXDFXXCDXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111110101 110110110 101111 00111 111111 111111101 11010111 111111101101 11110 00111110 110111111101 101011011101 1111011110 1110001 1101010101 11100111 1111111 11010 11011010 0101101 111001 110010100 11001111 11101010 11111101 0111101 1110111110 1101111 1010111111 10111 11110101 0111011100 0011101101 101111 1110 01001111 101101111 011111111 011111 0101101 10101010 1011011 00101111 0110111111 11010111 101011011 10111 11011010 01001101 0111001111 10101111 01111 10111001 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,874 |
Words | 370 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 23, 20, 11 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 504 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 123 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 5 Views
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