Analysis of Dreamland
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.
By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,-
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,-
By the mountains- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods,- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp-
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,-
By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy-
There the traveller meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past-
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.
For the heart whose woes are legion
'Tis a peaceful, soothing region-
For the spirit that walks in shadow
'Tis- oh, 'tis an Eldorado!
But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
Scheme | AABBaacc xxddeexdbfaA bfaAddxxggaahhiijj jjkkllxbmmnn AABBaa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101010 10111010 11111 1011101 11111110 1110011 10111101 111111 10010101 01010101 111111010 10111110 1010010 0110101 1110001 10101110 111001 1110101 11101010 101101010 101111 1110101 11101010 101101010 10101010 1001010010 1011101 10100101 1010101 1101 11101010 0111100 10100101 1100101 1011101 11101001 11111110 0100101010 10111110 10101010 10101101 1111010 1010010011 111110011 101100101 1011011 11111101 0101011 010111110 11111010 10101010 10111010 11111 1011101 11101110 1110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,476 |
Words | 334 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 12, 18, 12, 6 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 292 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 496 Views
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"Dreamland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8433/dreamland>.
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