Lyric Poem · Dreams & Sleep
The Dream
by John Donne
1Dear love, for nothing less than thee
2Would I have broke this happy dream;
3It was a theme
4For reason, much too strong for phantasy:
5Therefore thou waked'st me wisely; yet
6My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.
7Thou art so truth that thoughts of thee suffice
8To make dreams truths, and fables histories.
9Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best
10Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.
11As lightning or a taper's light,
12Thine eyes, and not thy noise, waked me;
13Yet I thought thee
14(For thou lov'st truth) an angel at first sight;
15But when I saw thou saw'st my heart,
16And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angels art,
17When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when
18Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
19I must confess it could not choose but be
20Prophane to think thee anything but thee.
21Comming and staying showed thee thee,
22But rising makes me doubt, that now
23Thou art not thou.
24That Love is weak, where fear's as strong as he;
25'Tis not all spirit pure and brave
26If mixture it of Fear, Shame, Honour, have.
27Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
28Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me,
29Thou cam'st to kindle, go'st to come; Then I
30Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
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“The Dream” by John Donne — quilloak.com/poems/the-dream
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Dream
- Poet
- John Donne
- Length
- 30 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Dreams & Sleep, Love, Peace
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 30 lines · 2 stanzas of 10–20 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 8-10 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- John Donne1572–1631
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Dream by john-donne, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 391850c33592cf33…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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