Analysis of The Dreamer

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



Temples he built and palaces of air,
And, with the artist's parent-pride aglow,
His fancy saw his vague ideals grow
Into creations marvellously fair;

He set his foot upon Fame's nether stair.
But ah, his dream,--it had entranced him so
He could not move. He could no farther go;
But paused in joy that he was even there!

He did not wake until one day there gleamed
Thro' his dark consciousness a light that racked
His being till he rose, alert to act.
But lo! what he had dreamed, the while he dreamed,
Another, wedding action unto thought,
Into the living, pulsing world had brought.


Scheme ABBA ABBA CDDCEE
Poetic Form
Metre 1011010011 0101010101 110111011 0101011 1111011101 1111110111 1111111101 1101111101 1111011111 1111000111 1101110111 1111110111 0101010101 0101010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 579
Words 108
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 152
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
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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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