Analysis of A Lost Dream
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
AH, I have changed, I do not know
Why lonely hours affect me so.
In days of yore, this were not wont,
No loneliness my soul could daunt.
For me too serious for my age,
The weighty tome of hoary sage,
Until with puzzled heart astir,
One God-giv'n night, I dreamed of her.
I loved no woman, hardly knew
More of the sex that strong men woo
Than cloistered monk within his cell;
But now the dream is lost, and hell
Holds me her captive tight and fast
Who prays and struggles for the past.
No living maid has charmed my eyes,
But now, my soul is wonder-wise.
For I have dreamed of her and seen
Her red-brown tresses, ruddy sheen,
Have known her sweetness, lip to lip,
The joy of her companionship.
When days were bleak and winds were rude,
She shared my smiling solitude,
And all the bare hills walked with me
To hearken winter's melody.
And when the spring came o'er the land
We fared together hand in hand
Beneath the linden's leafy screen
That waved above us faintly green.
In summer, by the river-side,
Our souls were kindred with the tide
That floated onward to the sea
As we swept toward Eternity.
The bird's call and the water's drone
Were all for us and us alone.
The water-fall that sang all night
Was her companion, my delight,
And e'en the squirrel, as he sped
Along the branches overhead,
Half kindly and half envious,
Would chatter at the joy of us.
'Twas but a dream, her face, her hair,
The spring-time sweet, the winter bare,
The summer when the woods we ranged, —
'Twas but a dream, but all is changed.
Yes, all is changed and all has fled,
The dream is broken, shattered, dead.
And yet, sometimes, I pray to know
How just a dream could hold me so.
Scheme | AABCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMMNNJJOOMMPPQQRRSSEETTRRAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 110100111 01111011 11001111 111100111 01011101 0111011 11111110 11110101 11011111 11010111 11011101 11010101 11010101 11011111 11111101 11111001 01110101 11010111 0110010 11010101 1111010 01011111 1110100 010111001 11010101 01010101 11011101 01010101 101010101 11010101 111010100 01100101 01110101 01011111 10010101 011010111 01010101 11001100 11010111 11010101 01110101 01010111 11011111 11110111 01110101 01011111 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,624 |
Words | 315 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 48 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,279 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 313 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 202 Views
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