Dreamers
Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.In the great hour of destiny they stand,Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.Soldiers are sworn to action; they must winSome flaming, fatal climax with their lives.Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns beginThey think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives.
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,And mocked by hopeless longing to regainBank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,And going to the office in the train.
About this text
Dreamers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8930; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, Dreamers, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/dreamers.html, id L04693.
Form and metre
Dreamers is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCDCD landA · morrowsB · standA · sorrowsB · winC · livesD · beginC · wivesD
- 2 ABABAB ratsA · rainB · batsA · regainB · spatsA · trainB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows. | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| In the great hour of destiny they stand, | 10 | ···/·/˘˘·· |
| Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows. | 11 | ·····/˘˘·/˘ |
| Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/···· |
| Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| They think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives. | 11 | ··········· |
| I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And mocked by hopeless longing to regain | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And going to the office in the train. | 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.