A Dream Pang
I HAD withdrawn in forest, and my songWas swallowed up in leaves that blew alway;And to the forest edge you came one day(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long,But did not enter, though the wish was strong:You shook your pensive head as who should say,'I dare not--too far in his footsteps stray--He must seek me would he undo the wrong.Not far, but near, I stood and saw it allBehind low boughs the trees let down outside;And the sweet pang it cost me not to callAnd tell you that I saw does still abide.But 'tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof,For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dream Pang is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Boy's Will, Project Gutenberg ebook #3021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, A Dream Pang, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/a-dream-pang.html, id L04633.
Form and metre
A Dream Pang is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 A-BAABBACDCDEE songA · alway · dayB · longA · strongA · sayB · strayB · wrongA · allC · outsideD · callC · abideD · aloofE · proofE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I HAD withdrawn in forest, and my song | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Was swallowed up in leaves that blew alway; | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| And to the forest edge you came one day | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (This was my dream) and looked and pondered long, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But did not enter, though the wish was strong: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| You shook your pensive head as who should say, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| 'I dare not--too far in his footsteps stray-- | 10 | ·······/·· |
| He must seek me would he undo the wrong. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Not far, but near, I stood and saw it all | 10 | ·········· |
| Behind low boughs the trees let down outside; | 10 | ········// |
| And the sweet pang it cost me not to call | 10 | ·········· |
| And tell you that I saw does still abide. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But 'tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof. | 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.