A Dream or No
WHY go to Saint-Juliot? What’s Juliot to me?I was but made fancyBy some necromancyThat much of my life claims the spot as its key.
Yes. I have had dreams of that place in the West,And a maiden abidingThereat as in hiding;Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed.
And of how, coastward bound on a night long ago,There lonely I found her,The sea-birds around her,And other than nigh things uncaring to know.
So sweet her life there (in my thought has it seemed)That quickly she drew meTo take her unto me,And lodge her long years with me. Such have I dreamed.
But nought of that maid from Saint-Juliot I see;Can she ever have been here,And shed her life’s sheen here,The woman I thought a long housemate with me?
Does there even a place like Saint-Juliot exist?Or a Vallency ValleyWith stream and leafed alley,Or Beeny, or Bos with its flounce flinging mist?
Words in this poem
- thereat adv.
- At that place; there.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- housemate n.
- One who dwells in the same house with another. R. Browning.
- leafed a.
- Having (such) a leaf or (so many) leaves; -- used in composition; as, broad-leafed; four-leafed.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dream or No is in the public domain. This text is taken from Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces, Project Gutenberg ebook #2863; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, A Dream or No, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/a-dream-or-no.html, id L24055.
Form and metre
A Dream or No is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 ABBA meA · fancyB · necromancyB · keyA
- 2 -AA- west · abidingA · hidingA · tressed
- 3 ABBA agoA · herB · herB · knowA
- 4 ABBA seemedA · meB · meB · dreamedA
- 5 ABBA seeA · hereB · hereB · meA
- 6 ABBA existA · valleyB · alleyB · mistA
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WHY go to Saint-Juliot? What’s Juliot to me? | 11 | ··········· |
| I was but made fancy | 6 | ····/˘ |
| By some necromancy | 6 | ··/˘·˘ |
| That much of my life claims the spot as its key. | 11 | ··········· |
| Yes. I have had dreams of that place in the West, | 11 | ··········· |
| And a maiden abiding | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Thereat as in hiding; | 6 | ˘/··/˘ |
| Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| And of how, coastward bound on a night long ago, | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| There lonely I found her, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The sea-birds around her, | 6 | ······ |
| And other than nigh things uncaring to know. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘·· |
| So sweet her life there (in my thought has it seemed) | 11 | ··········· |
| That quickly she drew me | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To take her unto me, | 6 | ······ |
| And lodge her long years with me. Such have I dreamed. | 11 | ··········· |
| But nought of that maid from Saint-Juliot I see; | 11 | ··········· |
| Can she ever have been here, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And shed her life’s sheen here, | 6 | ······ |
| The woman I thought a long housemate with me? | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Does there even a place like Saint-Juliot exist? | 11 | ··/······˘/ |
| Or a Vallency Valley | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With stream and leafed alley, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Or Beeny, or Bos with its flounce flinging mist? | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.