The land of Dreams By William Blake:
The land of Dreams By William Blake Awake, awake my little Boy! Thou wast thy Mother's only joy: Why dost thou weep in thy gentle sleep? Awake! thy Father does thee keep. "O, what land is the Land of Dreams? What are its mountains, and what are its streams? O Father, I saw my Mother there, Among the lillies by waters fair. Among the lambs clothed in white She walked with her Thomas in sweet delight. I wept for joy, like a dove I mourn - O when shall I return again?" Dear child, I also by pleasant streams Have wandered all night in the Land of Dreams; But though calm and warm the waters wide, I could not get to the other side. "Father, O Father, what do we here, In this land of unbelief and fear? The Land of Dreams is better far Above the light of the Morning Star."
Annotation:
Annotation In the First stanza I feel as if the little boy is having a bad dream and crying about it in his sleep and it makes the mother sad. In the second stanza it now appears to me that the boys mother is dead and that in this dream he saw her and is telling his father about how he saw his mom again. He thinks the dream was reality because of how real the dream felt to him. In the third stanza I believe he see’s heaven with white sheep. The boy wants to know when he will b returning to this wonderful dream land so that he could see his mother once more. In the next stanza the father is beginning to tell the child how he too has been to this miraculous dream land and that no matter how wonderful the place was he could not get to the other side of this stream where the boys mother is. In the final stanza the boy does not seem to like this dream land anymore because he states that the land of dreams is better in the light of the morning star which I believe is kind of like heaven.
Dreams in the Dusk by Carl Sandburg:
Dreams in the Dusk by Carl Sandburg DREAMS in the dusk, Only dreams closing the day And with the day's close going back To the gray things, the dark things, The far, deep things of dreamland. Dreams, only dreams in the dusk, Only the old remembered pictures Of lost days when the day's loss Wrote in tears the heart's loss. Tears and loss and broken dreams May find your heart at dusk.
Annotation:
Annotation The first stanza is in a very mysterious tone. I believe he is saying that dreams come during the night (or dusk) and are the only thing that closes the day. Where as you look back at the dark things in life dreams come to you in the night. The next stanza is completely confusing but I believe its saying that in your dreams you have memories of old pictures, tears and the hearts loss. In the last stanza its extremely short and all its really saying is that all the tears and loss and broken dreams may make you sad and make your heart at “dusk”.
The comparison :
The comparison The land of Dreams B y William Blake In this poem the poet portrays a dream land where a little boy sees his dead mother. While this is sweet it has a bit of a sad quality to it. At first I thought it was about a boy having a nightmare and the mother coming to comfort him but as the poem went on I realized that in fact his mom wasn’t with them anymore and that the boy as much as he misses his mother doesn’t want this dream again because he cannot have his mother back and heaven is a better place. Dreams in the Dusk B y Carl Sandburg This poem was extremely difficult to understand but what I got out of it was that dreams can bring up the tears, the loss and the pain in your heart and that it can make your heart “turn to dusk” or be dark. I believe he wrote this poem this way to show that not all dream are good and happy dreams.