When Dreams Become Memories of the Dead Part I

 

"I dream of you, to wake" is the third sonnet in Christina Rossetti's Monna Innominata, a group of sonnets about love, separation and longing ( one of my toxic hobbies ). Monna Innominata roughly means Unnamed Lady. This sonnet describes a person who dreams of a beloved; she experiences a lovely reunion with him in her sleep, only to wake to find him gone. Of course, this means that the dream is more beautiful than anything experienced in real life; waking up means realizing loneliness and the loss of this beloved person.  Another thing to think about is that, in this case, death could be sweeter than real life.  

Has that ever happened to you ? When I was still going to high school, from time to time, I used to dream about strangers, people who wanted to reach out, but even if I had never seen them before, it felt sad; it felt like I made a connection and then I would wake up and they were gone, never to be seen again. Now, some people in my life have crossed over to the other side, and yes, I have seen them, especially in the first couple of months. The dream was sweeter and waking up used to hurt, but somehow I had to believe they are with me. Even if I can't see them, I am sure I will post more about this. 

"I dream of you, to wake"

By Christina Rossetti

I dream of you, to wake: would that I might

Dream of you and not wake but slumber on;

Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone,

As, Summer ended, Summer birds take flight.

In happy dreams I hold you full in night.

I blush again who waking look so wan;

Brighter than sunniest day that ever shone,

In happy dreams your smile makes day of night.

Thus for in dreams I may comes to your side,

And love you without measure, without fear,

And know that you are mine, and I am yours.

Ah, brief delight! The morning comes so fast,

And waking brings the cold light of the day,

Where I must live without you, as before.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream,” published in 1849, is a meditation on the painful realization that nothing in life can truly be held onto—not time, not hope, memories, love, or even life itself. The poem begins with the speaker saying goodbye to someone and questioning whether his entire existence has been nothing more than a dream. This uncertainty becomes more powerful in the second stanza, where he stands on a shore trying desperately to hold grains of sand as they slip through his fingers and disappear into the sea. The sand can be read as a symbol of time.

I think Poe is showing what the realization of losing feels like. Seems the character is trying to hold on to time, maybe existence, memories, love, etc but it all is already slipping away with every hour and every day.

A Dream Within a Dream

by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand —

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep — while I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?