Analysis of Dreamfire
why should we pretend to dreams
of lives we fear in life to live
if all our dreams are only those
not fashioned from an inner fire
and hurled across the empty sky
for all the world below to see
to give the world a sense of beauty
and joy beyond some meager measure
of huddled comfort from dying fires
why do we fear the living fire
not just because we might be burned
because there is no place to hide
before the brightness of a flame
there is no dim and cozy corner
where the passive mind may crouch
without an effort or a challenge
living fire is never passive
never burns without demand
only when its darkening embers
furnish but a dying warmth
that echoes the departed flame
and counterfeits departed life
before the honest death of ashes
then only does assertion cease
when only gray lukewarmth remains
within a fading afterglow
like twilight after blazing day
then cozy and domestic souls
demanding only the undemanding
may tiredly at last discard
the pretense that the world demands
that they too yearn for passionate sun
and wallow at ease in drowsy content
and see and think and feel no more
except in pastel twilight fashion
quietly float into the womb
plodding worn familiar paths
circling eternal small backyards
dormant, content to be bounded by nutshells
and vexed by no dreams, bad or good.
Scheme | XXXABCCA DAXXEAXX XXDXEXXX XXXXBXXF XXFXXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 1110111 11110111 111011101 110111010 01010101 11010111 110101110 010111010 1101011010 111101010 11011111 01111111 01010101 111101010 1010111 011101010 101011010 1010101 101110010 1010101 11000101 0100101 010101110 11010101 1101101 0101010 1110101 11000101 0101001 111101 00110101 111111001 0101101010 01010111 01001110 10010101 1010101 10001011 1010111011 01111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,266 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 214 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
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"Dreamfire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/69936/dreamfire>.
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