My Dead Dream
Have you found me, at last, O my Dream? Seven aeons agoYou died and I buried you deep under forests of snow.Why have you come hither? Who bade you awake from your sleepAnd track me beyond the cerulean foam of the deep?
Would you tear from my lintels these sacred green garlands of leaves?Would you scare the white, nested, wild pigeons of joy from my eaves?Would you touch and defile with dead fingers the robes of my priest?Would you weave your dim moan with the chantings of love at my feast?
Go back to your grave, O my Dream, under forests of snow,Where a heart-riven child hid you once, seven aeons ago.Who bade you arise from your darkness? I bid you depart!Profane not the shrines I have raised in the clefts of my heart.
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- cerulean a.
- Sky-colored; blue; azure. [L. caeruleus.]
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Dead Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, My Dead Dream, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/my-dead-dream.html, id L27502.
Form and metre
My Dead Dream is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is anapaestic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AABB agoA · snowA · sleepB · deepB
- 2 AABB leavesA · eavesA · priestB · feastB
- 3 AABB snowA · agoA · departB · heartB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Have you found me, at last, O my Dream? Seven aeons ago | 14 | ·········/˘·˘/ |
| You died and I buried you deep under forests of snow. | 14 | ····/˘····/˘·· |
| Why have you come hither? Who bade you awake from your sleep | 14 | ····/˘···˘/··· |
| And track me beyond the cerulean foam of the deep? | 14 | ······˘/˘˘···· |
| Would you tear from my lintels these sacred green garlands of leaves? | 15 | ·····/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Would you scare the white, nested, wild pigeons of joy from my eaves? | 15 | ·····/˘·/˘····· |
| Would you touch and defile with dead fingers the robes of my priest? | 15 | ····˘/··/˘····· |
| Would you weave your dim moan with the chantings of love at my feast? | 15 | ········/˘····· |
| Go back to your grave, O my Dream, under forests of snow, | 14 | ··········/˘·· |
| Where a heart-riven child hid you once, seven aeons ago. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘·˘/ |
| Who bade you arise from your darkness? I bid you depart! | 14 | ···˘/··/˘···˘/ |
| Profane not the shrines I have raised in the clefts of my heart. | 14 | ˘/············ |
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.