“The Dream” Introduction

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“The Dream” Summary

“The Dream” Themes

• 

  Fantasy vs. Reality

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• 

  Love and Desire

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• 

  Sexual Shame and Honor

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Dream”

• Lines 1-6

  Dear love, for nothing less than thee
  Would I have broke this happy dream;
  It was a theme
  For reason, much too strong for fantasy,
  Therefore thou wak'dst me wisely; yet
  My dream thou brok'st not, but continuedst it.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-10

  Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
  To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
  Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
  Not to dream all my dream, let's do the rest.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-14

     As lightning, or a taper's light,
  Thine eyes, and not thy noise, wak'd me;
  Yet I thought thee
  (For thou lovest truth) an angel, at first sight;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-20

  But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
  And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angel's art,
  When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when
  Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
  I must confess, it could not choose but be
  Profane, to think thee anything but thee.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-23

     Coming and staying show'd thee, thee,
  But rising makes me doubt, that now
  Thou art not thou.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 24-26

  That love is weak, where fear's as strong as he;
  'Tis not all spirit, pure, and brave,
  If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 27-30

  Perchance, as torches which must ready be,
  Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me;
  Thou cam'st to kindle, goest to come; then I
  Will dream that hope again, but else would die.

  

  

  

  

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“The Dream” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Pun

  

  

  

  

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• Hyperbole

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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“The Dream” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Thee, thou, thy, thine
• Reason
• Wak'dst
• Brok'st
• True
• Suffice
• Histories
• Taper
• An angel's art
• Excess of joy would wake me
• It could not choose to be profane
• Rising
• Doubt
• Spirit
• Pure, and brave
• Perchance
• Torches
• Kindle
• Die

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Dream”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Dream” Speaker

“The Dream” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Dream”

More “The Dream” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem (performed in scholars' best approximation of what Donne's 17th-century accent would have sounded like).

  • A Portrait of Donne — Admire a portrait of the young Donne in which he poses as the very model of a melancholy Renaissance lover.

  • A Short Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's brief biography of Donne to learn more about his life and work.

  • Donne's Legacy — Read a review of a recent Donne biography to learn a little about how contemporary scholars approach Donne.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

  • A Hymn to God the Father

  • Air and Angels

  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed