I Dream’d in a Dream
I dream’d in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of thewhole of the rest of the earth,I dream’d that was the new city of Friends,Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest,It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,And in all their looks and words.
About this text
I Dream’d in a Dream is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, I Dream’d in a Dream, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/i-dream-d-in-a-dream.html, id L03886.
Form and metre
I Dream’d in a Dream is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 13.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I dream’d in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the | 20 | ········/˘˘/˘˘··˘/·· |
| whole of the rest of the earth, | 7 | ······· |
| I dream’d that was the new city of Friends, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest, | 19 | /˘·/˘···/˘˘·˘/····· |
| It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, | 19 | ···/˘˘/˘··/˘·····/˘ |
| And in all their looks and words. | 7 | ······· |
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.