Analysis of A Ballad of Dreamland
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
I hid my heart in a nest of roses,
Out of the sun's way, hidden apart;
In a softer bed than the soft white snow's is,
Under the roses I hid my heart.
Why would it sleep not? why should it start,
When never a leaf of the rose-tree stirred?
What made sleep flutter his wings and part?
Only the song of a secret bird.
Lie still, I said, for the wind's wing closes,
And mild leaves muffle the keen sun's dart;
Lie still, for the wind on the warm seas dozes,
And the wind is unquieter yet than thou art.
Does a thought in thee still as a thorn's wound smart?
Does the fang still fret thee of hope deferred?
What bids the lips of thy sleep dispart?
Only the song of a secret bird.
The green land's name that a charm encloses,
It never was writ in the traveller's chart,
And sweet on its trees as the fruit that grows is,
It never was sold in the merchant's mart.
The swallows of dreams through its dim fields dart,
And sleep's are the tunes in its tree-tops heard;
No hound's note wakens the wildwood hart,
Only the song of a secret bird.
In the world of dreams I have chosen my part,
To sleep for a season and hear no word
Of true love's truth or of light love's art,
Only the song of a secret bird.
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Ballade |
Metre | 1111001110 110111001 00101101111 100101111 111111111 1100110111 111101101 100110101 1111101110 011100111 11101101110 001111111 10101110111 1011111101 11011111 100110101 01111011 110110011 01111101111 1101100101 0101111111 0110101111 1111011 100110101 00111111011 1110100111 111111111 100110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,181 |
Words | 241 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 228 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 262 Views
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"A Ballad of Dreamland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1228/a-ballad-of-dreamland>.
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