Dreams
I love a woman tenderly,But cannot know if she loves me.I press her hand, her lips I kiss,But still love's full assurance miss.Our waking life for ever seemsCleft by a veil of doubt and dreams.
But love and night and sleep combineIn dreams to make her wholly mine.A sure love lights her eyes' deep blue,Her hands and lips are warm and true.Always the fact unreal seems,And truth I find alone in dreams.
Words in this poem
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dreams is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, Dreams, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/dreams.html, id L21601.
Form and metre
Dreams is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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 --AABB tenderly · me · kissA · missA · seemsB · dreamsB
- 2 AABBCC combineA · mineA · blueB · trueB · seemsC · dreamsC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I love a woman tenderly, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| But cannot know if she loves me. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I press her hand, her lips I kiss, | 8 | ········ |
| But still love's full assurance miss. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Our waking life for ever seems | 8 | //˘··/˘· |
| Cleft by a veil of doubt and dreams. | 8 | ········ |
| But love and night and sleep combine | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In dreams to make her wholly mine. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A sure love lights her eyes' deep blue, | 8 | ········ |
| Her hands and lips are warm and true. | 8 | ········ |
| Always the fact unreal seems, | 7 | /···˘/· |
| And truth I find alone in dreams. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
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.