A Dream of Mountaineering
At night, in my dream, I stoutly climbed a mountain.Going out alone with my staff of holly-wood.A thousand crags, a hundred hundred valleys--In my dream-journey none were unexploredAnd all the while my feet never grew tiredAnd my step was as strong as in my young days.Can it be that when the mind travels backwardThe body also returns to its old state?And can it be, as between body and soul,That the body may languish, while the soul is still strong?Soul and body--both are vanities:Dreaming and waking--both alike unreal.In the day my feet are palsied and tottering;In the night my steps go striding over the hills.As day and night are divided in equal parts--Between the two, I get as much as I lose.
Words in this poem
- stoutly adv.
- In a stout manner; lustily; boldly; obstinately; as, he stoutly defended himself.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- palsied a.
- Affected with palsy; paralyzed.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dream of Mountaineering is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, the Arthur Waley translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, A Dream of Mountaineering, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/a-dream-of-mountaineering.html, id L18870.
Form and metre
A Dream of Mountaineering is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.1 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 -AB-AB---C--C--- mountain · woodA · valleysB · unexplored · tiredA · daysB · backward · state · soul · strongC · vanities · unreal · totteringC · hills · parts · lose
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At night, in my dream, I stoutly climbed a mountain. | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| Going out alone with my staff of holly-wood. | 11 | /·˘/····/˘· |
| A thousand crags, a hundred hundred valleys-- | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| In my dream-journey none were unexplored | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| And all the while my feet never grew tired | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| And my step was as strong as in my young days. | 11 | ··········· |
| Can it be that when the mind travels backward | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| The body also returns to its old state? | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘/···· |
| And can it be, as between body and soul, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| That the body may languish, while the soul is still strong? | 13 | ··/˘·/˘······ |
| Soul and body--both are vanities: | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Dreaming and waking--both alike unreal. | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| In the day my feet are palsied and tottering; | 12 | ······/˘·/˘˘ |
| In the night my steps go striding over the hills. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| As day and night are divided in equal parts-- | 12 | ·····˘/˘·/˘· |
| Between the two, I get as much as I lose. | 11 | ··········· |
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.