Analysis of The Lady's Dream
Thomas Hood 1799 (London) – 1845 (London)
The lady lay in her bed,
Her couch so warm and soft,
But her sleep was restless and broken still;
For turning often and oft
From side to side, she mutter'd and moan'd,
And toss'd her arms aloft.
At last she startled up,
And gazed on the vacant air,
With a look of awe, as if she saw
Some dreadful phantom there—
And then in the pillow she buried her face
From visions ill to bear.
The very curtain shook,
Her terror was so extreme;
And the light that fell on the broider'd quilt
Kept a tremulous gleam;
And her voice was hollow, and shook as she cried:—
'Oh me! that awful dream'!
'That weary, weary walk,
In the churchyard's dismal ground!
And those horrible things, with shady wings,
That came and flitted round,—
Death, death, and nothing but death,
In every sight and sound!
'And oh! those maidens young,
Who wrought in that dreary room,
With figures drooping and spectres thin,
And cheeks without a bloom;—
And the Voice that cried, 'For the pomp of pride,
We haste to an early tomb!
''For the pomp and pleasure of Pride,
We toil like Afric slaves,
And only to earn a home at last,
Where yonder cypress waves;'—
And then they pointed—I never saw
A ground so full of graves!
'And still the coffins came,
With their sorrowful trains and slow;
Coffin after coffin still,
A sad and sickening show;
From grief exempt, I never had dreamt
Of such a World of Woe!
'Of the hearts that daily break,
Of the tears that hourly fall,
Of the many, many troubles of life,
That grieve this earthly ball—
Disease and Hunger, and Pain, and Want,
But now I dreamt of them all!
'For the blind and the cripple were there,
And the babe that pined for bread,
And the houseless man, and the widow poor
Who begged—to bury the dead;
The naked, alas, that I might have clad,
The famish'd I might have fed!
'The sorrow I might have sooth'd,
And the unregarded tears;
For many a thronging shape was there,
From long-forgotten years,
Ay, even the poor rejected Moor,
Who raised my childish fears!
'Each pleading look, that long ago
I scann'd with a heedless eye,
Each face was gazing as plainly there,
As when I pass'd it by:
Woe, woe for me if the past should be
Thus present when I die!
'No need of sulphurous lake,
No need of fiery coal,
But only that crowd of human kind
Who wanted pity and dole—
In everlasting retrospect—
Will wring my sinful soul!
'Alas! I have walk'd through life
Too heedless where I trod;
Nay, helping to trample my fellow-worm,
And fill the burial sod—
Forgetting that even the sparrow falls
Not unmark'd of God!
'I drank the richest draughts;
And ate whatever is good—
Fish, and flesh, and fowl, and fruit,
Supplied my hungry mood;
But I never remember'd the wretched ones
That starve for want of food!
'I dress'd as the noble dress,
In cloth of silver and gold,
With silk, and satin, and costly furs,
In many an ample fold;
But I never remember'd the naked limbs
That froze with winter's cold.
'The wounds I might have heal'd!
The human sorrow and smart!
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part:
But evil is wrought by want of Thought,
As well as want of Heart!'
She clasp'd her fervent hands,
And the tears began to stream;
Large, and bitter, and fast they fell,
Remorse was so extreme;
And yet, oh yet, that many a Dame
Would dream the Lady's Dream!
Scheme | AXBCXC XDEDXD XFXFGF XHXHXH XIXIGI GJXJEJ KLBLXL MNONXN DAXAXA XXDPXP LQDQXQ MRXRXR OSXSXS XXXTXT XUXUXU XVRVXV XFXFKF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101001 011101 1011100101 1101001 111111001 010101 111101 0110101 101111111 110101 01001011001 110111 010101 0101101 001111011 101001 00111001111 111101 110101 001101 0110011101 11011 1101011 0100101 011101 1101101 11010011 010101 0011110111 1111101 10101011 11111 010110111 110101 011101101 011111 010101 11100101 1010101 0101001 110111011 110111 1011101 1011101 1010101011 111101 010100101 1111111 101001001 0011111 001100101 1111001 0100111111 0101111 0101111 0011 11001111 110101 110010101 111101 11011101 111011 111101101 111111 111110111 110111 11111 1111001 110111101 1101001 001010 111101 0111111 11111 1101101101 0101001 0101100101 10111 110101 011011 1010101 011101 11100100101 111111 1110101 0111001 110100101 0101101 11100100101 111101 011111 0101001 011101011 111101 110111111 111111 110101 0010111 10100111 011101 011111001 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,285 |
Words | 615 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 102 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 3:09 min read
- 40 Views
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"The Lady's Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36695/the-lady%27s-dream>.
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