A Dream
Once a dream did wave a shadeO’er my angel-guarded bed,That an emmet lost its wayWhen on grass methought I lay.
Troubled, ’wildered, and forlorn,Dark, benighted, travel-worn,Over many a tangled spray,All heart-broke, I heard her say:
“Oh, my children! do they cry?Do they hear their father sigh?Now they look abroad to see.Now return and weep for me.”
Pitying, I dropped a tear;But I saw a glow-worm near,Who replied, “What wailing wightCalls the watchman of the night?
“I am set to light the groundWhile the beetle goes his round.Follow now the beetle’s hum--Little wanderer, hie thee home!”
Words in this poem
- emmet n.
- An ant. Emmet hunter (Zoöl.), the wryneck. [OE. emete, amete, AS. æmete. See Ant.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- watchman n.
- One set to watch; a person who keeps guard; a guard; a sentinel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, A Dream, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/a-dream.html, id L25228.
Form and metre
A Dream is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 shadeA · bedA · wayB · layB
- 2 AABB forlornA · wornA · sprayB · sayB
- 3 AABB cryA · sighA · seeB · meB
- 4 AABB tearA · nearA · wightB · nightB
- 5 AABB groundA · roundA · humB · homeB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Once a dream did wave a shade | 7 | ······· |
| O’er my angel-guarded bed, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| That an emmet lost its way | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When on grass methought I lay. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Troubled, ’wildered, and forlorn, | 8 | /˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| Dark, benighted, travel-worn, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Over many a tangled spray, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| All heart-broke, I heard her say: | 7 | ······· |
| “Oh, my children! do they cry? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Do they hear their father sigh? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Now they look abroad to see. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Now return and weep for me.” | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Pitying, I dropped a tear; | 8 | /˘˘··˘·· |
| But I saw a glow-worm near, | 7 | ······· |
| Who replied, “What wailing wight | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Calls the watchman of the night? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| “I am set to light the ground | 7 | ······· |
| While the beetle goes his round. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Follow now the beetle’s hum-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Little wanderer, hie thee home!” | 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.