Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DREAMS, by THOMAS TRAHERNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Tis strange! I saw the skies Last Line: From whence all joy, from whence all sorrow springs. Subject(s): Dreams; Memory; Nightmares | ||||||||
1 'Tis strange! I saw the skies; I saw the hills before mine eyes; The sparrow fly; The lands that did about me lie; The real sun, that heavenly eye! Can closed eyes even in the darkest night See through their lids, and be inform'd with sight? 2 The people were to me As true as those by day I see; As true the air, The earth as sweet, as fresh, as fair As that which did by day repair Unto my waking sense! Can all the sky, Can all the world, within my brain-pan lie? 3 What sacred secret's this, Which seems to intimate my bliss? What is there in The narrow confines of my skin, That is alive and feels within When I am dead? Can magnitude possess An active memory, yet not be less? 4 May all that I can see Awake, by night within me be? My childhood knew No difference, but all was true, As real all as what I view; The world itself was there. 'Twas wondrous strange, That Heaven and earth should so their place exchange. 5 Till that which vulgar sense Doth falsely call experience, Distinguish'd things: The ribbons, and the gaudy wings Of birds, the virtues, and the sins, That represented were in dreams by night As really my senses did delight, 6 Or grieve, as those I saw By day: things terrible did awe My soul with fear; The apparitions seem'd as near As things could be, and things they were. Yet were they all by fancy in me wrought, And all their being founded in a thought. 7 O what a thing is thought! Which seems a dream; yea, seemeth nought, Yet doth the mind Affect as much as what we find Most near and true! Sure men are blind, And can't the forcible reality Of things that secret are within them see. 8 Thought! Surely thoughts are true, They please as much as things can do: Nay, things are dead, And in themselves are severed From souls; nor can they fill the head Without our thoughts. Thoughts are the real things From whence all joy, from whence all sorrow springs. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 14 by CONRAD AIKEN VARIATIONS: 18 by CONRAD AIKEN LIVE IT THROUGH by DAVID IGNATOW A DREAM OF GAMES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL APOLOGY FOR BAD DREAMS by ROBINSON JEFFERS |
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