Houses of Dreams
You took my empty dreamsAnd filled them every oneWith tenderness and nobleness,April and the sun.
The old empty dreamsWhere my thoughts would throngAre far too full of happinessTo even hold a song.
Oh, the empty dreams were dimAnd the empty dreams were wide,They were sweet and shadowy housesWhere my thoughts could hide.
But you took my dreams awayAnd you made them all come true--My thoughts have no place now to play,And nothing now to do.
Words in this poem
- nobleness n.
- The quality or state of being noble; greatness; dignity; magnanimity; elevation of mind, character, or station; nobility; grandeur; stateliness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Houses of Dreams is in the public domain. This text is taken from Love Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #442; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, Houses of Dreams, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/houses-of-dreams.html, id L08091.
Form and metre
Houses of Dreams is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 dreams · oneA · nobleness · sunA
- 2 -A-A dreams · throngA · happiness · songA
- 3 -A-A dim · wideA · houses · hideA
- 4 ABAB awayA · trueB · playA · doB
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You took my empty dreams | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And filled them every one | 8 | ··˘·/˘˘· |
| With tenderness and nobleness, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| April and the sun. | 5 | /˘··· |
| The old empty dreams | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where my thoughts would throng | 5 | ····· |
| Are far too full of happiness | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| To even hold a song. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh, the empty dreams were dim | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the empty dreams were wide, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| They were sweet and shadowy houses | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Where my thoughts could hide. | 5 | ····· |
| But you took my dreams away | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And you made them all come true-- | 7 | ······· |
| My thoughts have no place now to play, | 8 | ········ |
| And nothing now to do. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.