Analysis of Dreams
John Dryden 1631 (Aldwincle) – 1631 (London)
Dreams are but interludes which Fancy makes;
When monarch Reason sleeps, this mimic wakes:
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A mob of cobblers, and a court of kings:
Light fumes are merry, grosser fumes are sad;
Both are the reasonable soul run mad;
And many monstrous forms in sleep we see,
That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be.
Sometimes forgotten things long cast behind
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
The nurse's legends are for truths received,
And the man dreams but what the boy believed.
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night restores our actions done by day;
As hounds in sleep will open for their prey.
In short, the farce of dreams is of a piece,
Chimeras all; and more absurd, or less.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGGHI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101101 111011101 1001010101 0111000111 1111010111 1101000111 0101010111 11001111011 0101011101 1100010111 0101011101 0011110101 0111010101 01011010111 1101110111 0101111101 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 730 |
Words | 135 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 17 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 579 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 133 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 41 sec read
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"Dreams" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22653/dreams>.
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