Analysis of On Dreaming
John Newton 1725 (Wapping, London) – 1807 (London)
When slumber seals our weary eyes,
The busy fancy wakeful keeps;
The scenes which then before us rise,
Prove something in us never sleeps.
As in another world we seem,
A new creation of our own,
All appears real, though a dream,
And all familiar, though unknown.
Sometimes the mind beholds again
The past day's business in review,
Resumes the pleasure or the pain;
And sometimes all we meet is new.
What schemes we form, what pains we take!
We fight, we run, we fly, we fall;
But all is ended when we wake,
We scarcely then a trace recall.
But though our dreams are often wild,
Like clouds before the driving storm;
Yet some important may be styl'd,
Sent to admonish or inform.
What mighty agents have access,
What friends from heav'n, or foes from hell,
Our minds to comfort or distress,
When we are sleeping, who can tell?
One thing, at least, and 'tis enough,
We learn from this surprising fact;
Our dreams afford sufficient proof,
The soul, without the flesh, can act.
This life, which mortals so esteem,
That many choose it for their all,
They will confess, was but a dream,
When 'waken'd by death's awful call.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEXE FGFG HIHI JKJK XLXL CGCG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 110110101 0101011 01110111 11001101 10010111 010101101 1011101 01010101 0101101 0111001 01010101 00111111 11111111 11111111 11110111 1101011 111011101 11010101 11010111 11010101 1101011 11111111 101110101 11110111 11110101 11110101 101010101 01010111 11110101 11011111 11011101 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,116 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 112 Views
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"On Dreaming" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23969/on-dreaming>.
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