Analysis of Elegy X: The Dream
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
Image of her whom I love, more than she,
Whose fair impression in my faithful heart
Makes me her medal, and makes her love me,
As Kings do coins, to which their stamps impart
The value: go, and take my heart from hence,
Which now is grown too great and good for me:
Honours oppress weak spirits, and our sense
Strong objects dull; the more, the less we see.
When you are gone, and Reason gone with you,
Then Fantasy is queen and soul, and all;
She can present joys meaner than you do;
Convenient, and more proportional.
So, if I dream I have you, I have you,
For, all our joys are but fantastical.
And so I 'scape the pain, for pain is true;
And sleep which locks up sense, doth lock out all.
After a such fruition I shall wake,
And, but the waking, nothing shall repent;
And shall to love more thankful sonnets make
Than if more honour, tears, and pains were spent.
But dearest heart, and dearer image, stay;
Alas, true joys at best are dream enough;
Though you stay here you pass too fast away:
For even at first life's taper is a snuff.
Filied with her love, may I be rather grown
Mad with much heart, than idiot with none.
Scheme | ABABCACA DEDXDEDE FGFGHIHI XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111111 1101001101 1101001011 1111111101 0101011111 1111110111 1011100101 1101010111 1111010111 1100110101 1110110111 010010100 1111111111 11101111 0111011111 0111111111 1001010111 0101010101 0111110101 111110101 1101010101 0111111101 1111111101 11011110101 1101111101 1111110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,109 |
Words | 218 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 2 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 177 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Elegy X: The Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22484/elegy-x%3A-the-dream>.
Discuss this John Donne poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In