The Wharf of Dreams
Strange wares are handled on the wharves of sleep:Shadows of shadows pass, and many a lightFlashes a signal fire across the night;Barges depart whose voiceless steersmen keepTheir way without a star upon the deep;And from lost ships, homing with ghostly crews,Come cries of incommunicable news,While cargoes pile the piers, a moon-white heap--
Budgets of dream-dust, merchandise of song,Wreckage of hope and packs of ancient wrong,Nepenthes gathered from a secret strand,Fardels of heartache, burdens of old sins,Luggage sent down from dim ancestral inns,And bales of fantasy from No-Man’s Land.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- homing a.
- Home-returning; -- used specifically of carrier pigeons.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- incommunicable a.
- Not communicable; incapable of being communicated, shared, told, or imparted, to others. [L. incommunicabilis: cf. F. incommunicable. See In- not, and Communicable.]
- wreckage n.
- The act of wrecking, or state of being wrecked.
- heartache n.
- Sorrow; anguish of mind; mental pang. [Cf. AS. heortece.]
- luggage n.
- That which is lugged; anything cumbrous and heavy to be carried; especially, a traveler's trunks, baggage, etc., or their contents. [From 4th Lug.]
- fantasy n.
- Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. [See Fancy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wharf of Dreams is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, The Wharf of Dreams, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/the-wharf-of-dreams.html, id L24766.
Form and metre
The Wharf of Dreams is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAACCA sleepA · lightB · nightB · keepA · deepA · crewsC · newsC · heapA
- 2 AABCCB songA · wrongA · strandB · sinsC · innsC · landB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strange wares are handled on the wharves of sleep: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shadows of shadows pass, and many a light | 10 | /··/···/·· |
| Flashes a signal fire across the night; | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/·· |
| Barges depart whose voiceless steersmen keep | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| Their way without a star upon the deep; | 10 | ·········· |
| And from lost ships, homing with ghostly crews, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Come cries of incommunicable news, | 10 | ·········· |
| While cargoes pile the piers, a moon-white heap-- | 10 | ·/········ |
| Budgets of dream-dust, merchandise of song, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Wreckage of hope and packs of ancient wrong, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Nepenthes gathered from a secret strand, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Fardels of heartache, burdens of old sins, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Luggage sent down from dim ancestral inns, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| And bales of fantasy from No-Man’s Land. | 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.