Analysis of A Dream.
William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)
I had a dream, a strange, wild dream,
Said a dear voice at early light;
And even yet its shadows seem
To linger in my waking sight.
Earth, green with spring, and fresh with dew,
And bright with morn, before me stood;
And airs just wakened softly blew
On the young blossoms of the wood.
Birds sang within the sprouting shade,
Bees hummed amid the whispering grass,
And children prattled as they played
Beside the rivulet's dimpling glass
Fast climbed the sun: the flowers were flown,
There played no children in the glen;
For some were gone, and some were grown
To blooming dames and bearded men.
'Twas noon, 'twas summer: I beheld
Woods darkening in the flush of day,
And that bright rivulet spread and swelled,
A mighty stream, with creek and bay.
And here was love, and there was strife,
And mirthful shouts, and wrathful cries,
And strong men, struggling as for life,
With knotted limbs and angry eyes.
Now stooped the sun, the shades grew thin;
The rustling paths were piled with leaves;
And sunburnt groups were gathering in,
From the shorn field, its fruits and sheaves.
The river heaved with sullen sounds;
The chilly wind was sad with moans;
Black hearses passed, and burial-grounds
Grew thick with monumental stones.
Still waned the day; the wind that chased
The jagged clouds blew chillier yet;
The woods were stripped, the fields were waste,
The wintry sun was near its set.
And of the young, and strong, and fair,
A lonely remnant, gray and weak,
Lingered, and shivered to the air
Of that bleak shore and water bleak.
Ah! age is drear, and death is cold!
I turned to thee, for thou wert near,
And saw thee withered, bowed, and old,
And woke all faint with sudden fear.
'Twas thus I heard the dreamer say,
And bade her clear her clouded brow;
"For thou and I, since childhood's day,
Have walked in such a dream till now.
"Watch we in calmness, as they rise,
The changes of that rapid dream,
And note its lessons, till our eyes
Shall open in the morning beam."
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH BIXI JKJK LMLM NONO PQPQ RSRS TUTU IVIV KAKA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (92%) |
Metre | 11010111 10111101 0101111 11001101 11110111 01110111 0111101 10110101 11010101 110101001 01010111 010111 110101001 11110001 11010101 11010101 1111011 110000111 0111101 01011101 01110111 011011 011100111 11010101 11010111 01010111 01101000 10111101 01011101 01011111 11101001 1110101 11010111 01111001 01010101 01011111 01010101 01010101 10010101 11110101 11110111 11111111 01110101 01111101 11110101 01010101 1101111 11010111 11010111 01011101 011101101 11000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,955 |
Words | 367 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 118 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 11 Views
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"A Dream." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/57011/a-dream.>.
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