The Dreamer
Temples he built and palaces of air,And, with the artist's parent-pride aglow,His fancy saw his vague ideals growInto creations marvellously fair;
He set his foot upon Fame's nether stair.But ah, his dream,--it had entranced him soHe could not move. He could no farther go;But paused in joy that he was even there!
He did not wake until one day there gleamedThro' his dark consciousness a light that rackedHis being till he rose, alert to act.But lo! what he had dreamed, the while he dreamed,Another, wedding action unto thought,Into the living, pulsing world had brought.
Words in this poem
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- nether a.
- Situated down or below; lying beneath, or in the lower part; having a lower position; belonging to the region below; lower; under; -- opposed to upper. [OE. nethere, neithere, AS. ni, fr. the adv. ni downward; akin to neo below, beneath, D. neder down, G. nieder, Sw. nedre below, nether, a. & adv., and also to S]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dreamer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Dreamer, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-dreamer.html, id L00609.
Form and metre
The Dreamer is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBA airA · aglowB · growB · fairA
- 2 ABBA stairA · soB · goB · thereA
- 3 ABBACC gleamedA · rackedB · actB · dreamedA · thoughtC · broughtC
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Temples he built and palaces of air, | 10 | /˘···/˘˘·· |
| And, with the artist's parent-pride aglow, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| His fancy saw his vague ideals grow | 9 | ·/˘···˘/· |
| Into creations marvellously fair; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| He set his foot upon Fame's nether stair. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But ah, his dream,--it had entranced him so | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| He could not move. He could no farther go; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But paused in joy that he was even there! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| He did not wake until one day there gleamed | 10 | ·········· |
| Thro' his dark consciousness a light that racked | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| His being till he rose, alert to act. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| But lo! what he had dreamed, the while he dreamed, | 10 | ·········· |
| Another, wedding action unto thought, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Into the living, pulsing world had brought. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.