Dreamers
Soldiers are citizens of death's gray 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 The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, Project Gutenberg ebook #45199; 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 The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/dreamers.html, id L17220.
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 gray 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.