Analysis of Sonnet V
George Santayana 1863 (Madrid) – 1952 (Rome)
Dreamt I today the dream of yesternight,
Sleep ever feigning one evolving theme -
Of my two lives which should I call the dream?
Which action vanity? Which vision sight?
Some greater waking must pronounce aright,
If aught abides still of the things that seem,
And with both currents swell the flooded stream
Into an ocean infinite of light.
Even such a dream I dream, and know full well
My waking passes like a midnight spell,
But know not if my dreaming could break through
Into the deeps of heaven and of hell.
I know but this of all I would I knew:
Truth is a dream, unless my dream is true.
Scheme | ABBAABBA CCDCDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 1101010101 1111111101 1101001101 110101011 1101110111 0111010101 0111010011 10101110111 110101011 1111110111 0101110011 1111111111 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 589 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 235 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 104 Views
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"Sonnet V" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15798/sonnet-v>.
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