(i)Dream

D. H. Lawrence
All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream-by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,
Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people,
For they dream their dreams with open eyes,
And make them come true.
Summary
The poem, “Dreams” narrates the nature of dreaming. Here the poet says that there are two kinds of dreamers; one who
dreams in the day and the other who dreams by night. Those who dream at night cannot make their dreams come true
because they dream at night unconsciously and forget these dreams as soon as they get up in the morning. But those who
dream consciously at day time can make their dream come true as they dream empirically with open eyes and these
dreamers are dangerous.
(ii)Dreams
-Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow
Summary
The poet here has highlighted the importance of dreams in men’s life. He says that nothing can be achieved if there is no
dream in life. To fulfil desire and achieve goals, one must dream. Without dreams the prospect of improving life is
impossible because no dreams mean no dreams achieved. A life without dreams has no purpose. It becomes weary,
monotonous and lifeless. So, one must not stop dreaming because dreams bring comfort, solace and hope in the real
world.
THE SCHOOLBOY
-Willam Blake
I love to rise in a summer morn, And forget his youthful spring!
When the birds sing on every tree; O father and mother if buds are
The distant huntsman winds his nipped,
horn, And blossoms blown away;
And the skylark sings with me: And if the tender plants are
O what sweet company! stripped
But to go to school in a summer Of their joy in the springing day.
morn, By sorrow and care's dismay,
O it drives all joy away! How shall the summer arise in joy,
Under a cruel eye outworn, Or the summer fruits appear?
The little ones spend the day Or how shall we gather what griefs
In sighing and dismay. destroy
Ah then at times I drooping sit, Or bless the mellowing year,
And spend many an anxious hour; When the blasts of winter appear?
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning's bower
Worn through with the dreary
shower.
How can the bird that is born for
joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears
annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
Summary
The poem expresses the innocence of a schoolboy. He loves to rise in the summer morning when the birds sing on every
tree. He likes to spend his morning with his sweet companies, the skylark and the distant huntsman. But all his joys get
destroyed for going to school in the summer morning because he has to see the teacher’s cruel eye there and he has to
spend his days with dismay. He only spends many anxious hours in the school. He does not get any delight from either his
book or his reading room. He is now extremely exhausted. Here the schoolboy expresses boredom of and annoyance to
the formal education
Those Winter Sundays
-Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Summary
The poet captures his cold and distant memories with his dutiful father in flashback. Even on holidays, the father would rise
early to make fires to keep the house warm in biting cold. Moreover, the selfless father , sacrificing his own comforts, would
polish the son’s shoes and take care of the family’s happiness. However, the little son could hardly appreciate fatherly love at
that age, and so the adult son now regrets not expressing his thankfulness to his father then.