The Dream by John Donne: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Dream that begins with:

Dear love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream; ... full text

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

The information we provided is prepared by means of a special computer program. Use the criteria sheet to understand greatest poems or improve your poetry analysis essay.

  • Rhyme scheme: abbXccXXcc caacccddaa aeeaffaaaa
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 10,10,10,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: couplets
  • Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Metre: 11110111 11110101 0101 1101111100 111101101 1111111000 1111110101 0111110100 1011111101 1011111101 11010101 111111101 1111 1111110111 11111111 1111011101 1111111111 1101111111 1101011110 1001110111 10110111 11011111 1111 1101111111 11110111 0100011101 0111011100 1111111101 1101010111 0111011111
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 410
  • Average number of words per stanza: 76
  • Amount of lines: 30
  • Average number of symbols per line: 40 (medium-length strings)
  • Average number of words per line: 8

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; for, thou, when are repeated.

    There is a poetic device epiphora at the end of some neighboring lines thee is repeated).

If you write a school or university poetry essay, you should Include in your explanation of the poem:

  • summary of The Dream;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

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