A Dream
Once a dream did weave a shadeO’er my angel-guarded bed,That an emmet lost its wayWhere on grass methought I lay.
Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,Dark, benighted, travel-worn,Over many a tangled spray,All heart-broke, I heard her say:
‘O my children! do they cry,Do they hear their father sigh?Now they look abroad to see,Now return and weep for me.’
Pitying, I dropped a tear:But I saw a glow-worm near,Who replied, ‘What wailing wightCalls the watchman of the night?’
‘I am set to light the ground,While the beetle goes his round:Follow now the beetle’s hum;Little wanderer, hie thee home!’
Words in this poem
- emmet n.
- An ant. Emmet hunter (Zoöl.), the wryneck. [OE. emete, amete, AS. æmete. See Ant.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- watchman n.
- One set to watch; a person who keeps guard; a guard; a sentinel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Project Gutenberg ebook #1934; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, A Dream, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1934, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-songs/a-dream.html, id L02886.
Form and metre
A Dream is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --AA shade · bed · wayA · layA
- 2 AABB forlornA · wornA · sprayB · sayB
- 3 AABB cryA · sighA · seeB · meB
- 4 AABB tearA · nearA · wightB · nightB
- 5 AABB groundA · roundA · humB · homeB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Once a dream did weave a shade | 7 | ······· |
| O’er my angel-guarded bed, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| That an emmet lost its way | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where on grass methought I lay. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Troubled, wildered, and forlorn, | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| Dark, benighted, travel-worn, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Over many a tangled spray, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| All heart-broke, I heard her say: | 7 | ······· |
| ‘O my children! do they cry, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Do they hear their father sigh? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Now they look abroad to see, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Now return and weep for me.’ | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Pitying, I dropped a tear: | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| But I saw a glow-worm near, | 7 | ······· |
| Who replied, ‘What wailing wight | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Calls the watchman of the night?’ | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| ‘I am set to light the ground, | 7 | ······· |
| While the beetle goes his round: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Follow now the beetle’s hum; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Little wanderer, hie thee home!’ | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.