Analysis of A Day Dream
Emily Jane Brontë 1818 (Thornton) – 1848 (Haworth)
On a sunny brae, alone I lay
One summer afternoon;
It was the marriage-time of May
With her young lover, June.
From her mother's heart, seemed loath to part
That queen of bridal charms,
But her father smiled on the fairest child
He ever held in his arms.
The trees did wave their plumy crests,
The glad birds caroled clear;
And I, of all the wedding guests,
Was only sullen there!
There was not one, but wished to shun
My aspect void of cheer;
The very grey rocks, looking on,
Asked, "What do you here?"
And I could utter no reply;
In sooth, I did not know
Why I had brought a clouded eye
To greet the general glow.
So, resting on a heathy bank,
I took my heart to me;
And we together sadly sank
Into a reverie.
We thought, "When winter comes again,
Where will these bright things be?
All vanished, like a vision vain,
An unreal mockery!
The birds that now so blithely sing,
Through deserts, frozen dry,
Poor spectres of the perished spring,
In famished troops, will fly.
And why should we be glad at all?
The leaf is hardly green,
Before a token of its fall
Is on the surface seen!"
Now, whether it were really so,
I never could be sure;
But as in fit of peevish woe,
I stretched me on the moor.
A thousand thousand gleaming fires
Seemed kindling in the air;
A thousand thousand silvery lyres
Resounded far and near:
Methought, the very breath I breathed
Was full of sparks divine,
And all my heather-couch was wreathed
By that celestial shine!
And, while the wide earth echoing rung
To their strange minstrelsy,
The little glittering spirits sung,
Or seemed to sing, to me.
"O mortal! mortal! let them die;
Let time and tears destroy,
That we may overflow the sky
With universal joy!
Let grief distract the sufferer's breast,
And night obscure his way;
They hasten him to endless rest,
And everlasting day.
To thee the world is like a tomb,
A desert's naked shore;
To us, in unimagined bloom,
It brightens more and more!
And could we lift the veil, and give
One brief glimpse to thine eye,
Thou wouldst rejoice for those that live,
Because they live to die."
The music ceased; the noonday dream,
Like dream of night, withdrew;
But Fancy, still, will sometimes deem
Her fond creation true.
Scheme | ABAB CDXD EFEG XFXX HIHI JKJK XKXK LHLH MNMN IOIO XGDF XPCP QDQK HRHR SASA TUTU XHXH VWVW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (78%) |
Metre | 101010111 11001 11010111 101101 101011111 111101 1010110101 1101011 0111111 01111 01110101 110101 11111111 11111 01011101 11111 01110101 011111 11110101 1101001 1101011 111111 01010101 010100 11110101 111111 11010101 101100 01111101 110101 1110101 010111 01111111 011101 01010111 110101 11010101 110111 11011101 111101 010101010 110001 010101001 1101 1010111 111101 01110111 110101 010111001 1111 010100101 111111 11010111 110101 1111001 10101 1101011 010111 11011101 00101 11011101 01101 1100101 110101 01110101 111111 11011111 011111 0101011 111101 11011011 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,144 |
Words | 406 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:01 min read
- 75 Views
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"A Day Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12486/a-day-dream>.
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