...: "My Dream" an Analysis of a Poem

“My Dream”

An Analysis of a Poem

Written by Suarni

No. Reg : 2101101124

Submitted for the Completion of

English Poetry Assignment

Lecturer :

Mr. Ramot Simanjuntak

STIBA IEC FATMAWATI

2012

MY DREAM

A. Introduction

Poetry is a form of literary art which uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meaning in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia). Everyone can make a poem, of course, with different quality based on their own style, characteristic and skill.

In this section, I am going to analyze a poem I made, titles “My Dream”. I believe that everyone has ever dreamt, either bad or good dream, either at night or noon. If the dream does not have any correlation to our lives (unreasonable), of course, we shalll forget it easily. However, if the dream is related to our feelings, emotions and thoughts, then the dream will always be remembered, or even we will think it more seriously whether it (good or bad dream) will really come true or not.

People who are close to us, both parents (mother and father), husband or wife, relatives, friends or even a new person we know, could be the sweetest object of our dreams. Especially someone whom we always remember, someone we love, someone we hate, and so on, she/he would often appear in our dream.

The poem below is one of my dream experience as I always dream about someone with different situation and condition in each episode. It is written in a very clear and simple language. I hope this paper will be very useful for the readers to improve their skill in English Poetry and the analysis.

B. Poem

My Dream

Last night, I dreamt about you

At the sixth path in that avenue

I sat on the bench and waited for you

Watched by the oak tree and yellow bamboo

One, two, three hours passed through

I was anxious and uneasy too

Dear,…here I come

Do you miss me all the time?

How are you, honey?

I hope you’ll always remember me!

My lips are smiling naughty

Thinking of you is such like crazy

One, two, three hours passed through

I didn’t know what to do

It’s been six twenty two

But where are you?

It’s almost dark

And the dog has barked

No one comes,

But an old man with the stick on his arms

To me he said, “Girl, don’t be sad!

Don’t let your life’s getting bad

He has gone far away

With the broken bridge in a high way

He won’t be back…

He won’t be back…"

I could say nothing

But my tears were dripping

C. Analysis

“My Dream” is a poem about my dream last night. It is an AABB rhyme’s poem with two rhyming couplets per stanza. In the first stanza, I try to tell the readers about my dream. The dream’s description is quite clear, as I told the readers that I sat on the bench to wait someone in the sixth path in an avenue for more than three hours. There were oak tree and yellow bamboo around the place watching me while I was waiting. In this fourth line, we find “personification”, as it metaphorically represents each main object as having human attribute of form, character, feeling, behavior, and so on. As we can see here,“Watched by the oak tree and yellow bamboo.” In fact, they (the oak tree and yellow bamboo) could not watch me, because they are just plants that of course, have no eyes to see. The last line in the first stanza, describes how unxious and uneasy my feeling was.

In the second stanza, I was thinking of how if someone I was waiting for is suddenly coming. I describe how deep my feeling to him and I do hope that he will always remember me. In the last line of this stanza, we find “simile”, as we use the word “like” to compare two things/situations.

The third stanza tells about the duration of waiting, till I did not know what to do anymore because it was almost dark. As mentioned in the fourth stanza that there was no one comes, but an old man with a stick in his arms who advices me not to be sad. In this part, the unknown old man whom I didn’t know where he came from, told me that the man I was waiting for has gone far away. As written in these lines, we can see here as if the old man knew everything happening to him;

He has gone far away

With the broken bridge in a high way

He won’t be back…

However, his sentences “He has gone far away, with the broken bridge in a high way, he won’t be back…, he won’t be back…” were still an unclear explanation. We don’t know what the old man really means by saying those kinds of words. We still don’t know what really happen to him (someone I waited for in that dream). Is he died of accident (as told by the old man that he has gone far away with the broken bridge in a high way) or is this just a symbol that something will happen to him? (In fact, it was only a dream). But it seems that this dream correlates with my emotion and feeling, so that in the last two lines written;

I could say nothing

But my tears were dripping

From this two lines, the readers could see how sad my feeling was when I heard a bad news about him (though it was only a dream).

We must remember that dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest, throughout recorded history. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

But, we don’t need to believe 100% with it. In the poem of “My Dream” itself contains of a message that nomatter how sad our feeling is (because of losing of someone/something we love), we have to remember not to make our life’s situation gets worse (as the old man said). We have to believe that everything that happens in this world has been controlled by God. We must be patient to face His trial, and we have to be wiser to live our life.