Analysis of Three Dreams

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



I think, I dreamed of falling leaves,

Of wide forests and dark lakes,

Of sad words' echo -

However, I could not understand their meaning.

I think, I dreamed of falling stars,

Of the weeping entreaty of pale eyes,

Of a smile's echo -

However, I could not understand its meaning.

Like falling leaves, like falling stars,

So I saw myself eternally coming and going,

A dream's immortal echo -

However, I could not understand its meaning.

In my soul's dark mirror

Are pictures of never-seen seas,

Of abandoned, tragic imaginary lands,

Dissolving into the blue, the thereabouts.

My soul bore blood-purple skies

Shone through by gigantic, crackling suns,

And strangely animated, shimmering gardens,

That steamed with muggy, deadly delights.

And my soul's dark fountain

Created pictures of immense nights,

Moved by nameless cantos

And breaths of eternal powers.

My soul shudders memory-dark,

As if it found itself in everything -

In unfathomable seas and nights,

And deep cantos, without beginning and end.

I saw many towns as if robbed by flame

And the times accumulated atrocity after atrocity,

And saw a lot of people putrefy to dust,

And everything float into oblivion.

I saw the gods fall to the night,

The holiest harps powerlessly smashed,

And kindled anew from putrefaction,

A new life swelling to the day.

Swelling to the day and again passing,

The eternally identical tragedy,

That thus we play without understanding,

And its insanity's nightly torture

Wreathes the soft glory of beauty

Like a smiling universe of thorns.


Scheme a x b c d e b C d c b C f x x x e g g h i h a x x c h x x j x i x x i x c j c f j x
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101 1110011 11110 1011101110 11111101 1010010111 10110 1011101110 11011101 1111010010010 0101010 1011101110 011110 11011011 10101001001 0100101001 1111101 111010101 01010010010 111101001 011110 010101011 11101 01101010 11101001 111101010 001000101 0110101001 1110111111 00101000100100100 0101110111 0101010100 11011101 0100111 0100111 01110101 1010100110 001000100100 111101010 0111010 10110110 10101011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,499
Words 257
Sentences 11
Stanzas 42
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 42
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 29
Words per stanza (avg) 6
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:18 min read
57

Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. more…

All Georg Trakl poems | Georg Trakl Books

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