The Dream
Love, if I weep it will not matter,And if you laugh I shall not care;Foolish am I to think about it,But it is good to feel you there.
Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,--White and awful the moonlight reachedOver the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,There was a shutter loose,--it screeched!
Swung in the wind,--and no wind blowing!--I was afraid, and turned to you,Put out my hand to you for comfort,--And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew,
Under my hand the moonlight lay!Love, if you laugh I shall not care,But if I weep it will not matter,--Ah, it is good to feel you there!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from Renascence, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #109; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Dream, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/the-dream.html, id L07735.
Form and metre
The Dream is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A matter · careA · it · thereA
- 2 -A-A waking · reachedA · somewhere · screechedA
- 3 -A-A blowing · youA · comfort · dewA
- 4 -A-A lay · careA · matter · thereA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, if I weep it will not matter, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And if you laugh I shall not care; | 8 | ········ |
| Foolish am I to think about it, | 9 | /˘······· |
| But it is good to feel you there. | 8 | ········ |
| Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,-- | 10 | ······˘·/˘ |
| White and awful the moonlight reached | 9 | ··/˘·/··˘ |
| Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere, | 9 | ·····/·/· |
| There was a shutter loose,--it screeched! | 9 | ···/˘···˘ |
| Swung in the wind,--and no wind blowing!-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I was afraid, and turned to you, | 9 | ··˘/··˘·· |
| Put out my hand to you for comfort,-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew, | 8 | ········ |
| Under my hand the moonlight lay! | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Love, if you laugh I shall not care, | 8 | ········ |
| But if I weep it will not matter,-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Ah, it is good to feel you there! | 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.