Analysis of I Saw A New World

William Brighty Rands 1823 (Chelsea, Middlesex) – 1882 (East Dulwich, London)



I SAW a new world in my dream,  
Where all the folks alike did seem:  
There was no Child, there was no Mother,  
There was no Change, there was no Other.  

For everything was Same, the Same;  
There was no praise, there was no blame;  
There was neither Need nor Help for it;  
There was nothing fitting or unfit.  

Nobody laugh’d, nobody wept;  
None grew weary, so none slept;
There was nobody born, and nobody wed;  
This world was a world of the living-dead.  

I long’d to hear the Time-Clock strike  
In the world where people were all alike;  
I hated Same, I hated Forever;
I long’d to say Neither, or even Never.  

I long’d to mend, I long’d to make;  
I long’d to give, I long’d to take;  
I long’d for a change, whatever came after,  
I long’d for crying, I long’d for laughter.

At last I heard the Time-Clock boom,  
And woke from my dream in my little room;  
With a smile on her lips my Mother was nigh,  
And I heard the Baby crow and cry.  

And I thought to myself, How nice it is
For me to live in a world like this,  
Where things can happen, and clocks can strike,  
And none of the people are made alike;  

Where Love wants this, and Pain wants that,  
Where all our hearts want Tit for Tat
In the jumbles we make with our heads and our hands,  
In a world that nobody understands,  
But with work, and hope, and the right to call  
Upon Him who sees it and knows us all!


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGBB HHBB IIJJ XXGG KKLLMM
Poetic Form
Metre 11011011 11010111 111111110 111111110 1101101 11111111 111011111 111010101 1111 1110111 1111011 1110110101 11110111 0011100101 1101110010 11111011010 11111111 11111111 1110110110 1111011110 11110111 0111101101 10110111011 011010101 011111111 111100111 111100111 0110101101 11110111 111011111 0011111010101 0011101 1110100111 0111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,394
Words 267
Sentences 8
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6
Lines Amount 34
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 126
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:20 min read
85

William Brighty Rands

William Brighty Rands (24 December 1823, Chelsea, Middlesex — 23 April 1882, East Dulwich, London) was a British writer and one of the major authors of nursery rhymes of the Victorian era.  more…

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