I sailed in my dreams to the Land of Night
Where you were the dusk-eyed queen,
And there in the pallor of moon-veiled light
The loveliest things were seen…
A slim-necked peacock sauntered there
in a garden of lavender hues,
and you were strange with your purple hair
As you sat in your amethyst chair
With your feet in your hyacinth shoes.
Oh, the moon gave a bluish light
Through the trees in the land of dreams and night.
I stood behind a bush of yellow-green
And whistled a song to the dark-haired queen…
Use the poem to answer the question.
How does the structure of the poem affect its meaning?
A litany structure allows the poem to have a sing-song quality that aligns with the peaceful setting.
Each stanza has a different rhyme scheme, leading the reader through different moments in the speaker’s dream.
The use of three quatrains gives a consistent, ordered quality to the speaker’s whimsical descriptions of the dream.
The last stanza’s two couplets emphasize the change in setting from the first and second stanzas.