Children of Dream
The black ash grows in the swampy ground,The white ash in the dry;The thrush he holds to the woodland bound,The hawk to the open sky.
The trout he runs to the mountain brook,The swordfish keeps the sea;The brown bear knows where the blueberry grows.The clover calls the bee.
The locust sings in the August noon,The frog in the April night;The iris loves the meadow-land,The laurel loves the height.
And each will hold his tenure oldOf earth and sun and stream,For all are creatures of desireAnd children of a dream.
Words in this poem
- swampy a.
- Consisting of swamp; like a swamp; low, wet, and spongy; as, swampy land.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Children of Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from Later Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33417; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Children of Dream, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/children-of-dream.html, id L11037.
Form and metre
Children of Dream is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB groundA · dryB · boundA · skyB
- 2 -A-A brook · seaA · grows · beeA
- 3 -A-A noon · nightA · land · heightA
- 4 -A-A old · streamA · desire · dreamA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The black ash grows in the swampy ground, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The white ash in the dry; | 6 | ······ |
| The thrush he holds to the woodland bound, | 9 | ······/·· |
| The hawk to the open sky. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The trout he runs to the mountain brook, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The swordfish keeps the sea; | 6 | ·/···· |
| The brown bear knows where the blueberry grows. | 10 | ······/·˘· |
| The clover calls the bee. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The locust sings in the August noon, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| The frog in the April night; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The iris loves the meadow-land, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| The laurel loves the height. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And each will hold his tenure old | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of earth and sun and stream, | 6 | ······ |
| For all are creatures of desire | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| And children of a dream. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.