Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894 / London)

OMG TGC wittering on and on and on and on yet again just enjoy the poem and stop showing off.
I find Rosettis poems alway beautifully written. Enjoy

I love the charming Madam Christina Georgina Rossetti's poetry, and I'm pretty sure she did more than just sit around.

@Dennis that Menace: I find your comment to be disturbing. Classics are the pure heart of poetry. I mean not to say that modern poets aren't equally as good or even better, but there's nothing wrong with classics either. As for 'Heart of Emo' and those that are similar, most of those poems lack the spirit, rhythm, rawness, and deep meaning that poetry is so appreciated for.

Ugh... thats all thats gnna be @ poem of the day? wut about others recognition I though this ite was to approve of all poets? not just the older generation I mean Rob Frost, Poe, Ginsberg, Rosetti, but what abot the Heart of Emo or the other kids doing this $#*t from expiereince instead sitting around like these guys just watching did!

Dream Land by Christina Georgina Rossetti is a poem about death and the afterlife. In stanza one “Where sunless rivers weep /Their waves into the deep, /She sleeps a charmed sleep: ”, the metaphor is life is like a river flowing towards death like a river flowing to the sea. She should not be woken because she must travel far “To seek where shadows are /Her pleasant lot.” This implies this poetic life being versed, is a life as preparation for death, as an eventual reward.
In stanza two life is but a dream, the woman in the poem sleeps, because our life on earth is a sleeping state, “And water springs. /Through sleep, as through a veil, ” clearly indicating life is a veiled sleep. We wake when our soul reaches “The purple land”, the traditional resting place in the west. This can be taken as an Isle of Avalon, like King Arthur’s sleeping or healing place, or a metaphor for heaven.
Therefore the 2nd and 3rd stanzas are about her leaving earthly things like “the rosy morn”, “fields of corn”, “grain /Ripening on hill and plain; ” and “the rain” she no longer feels. Her sleep in life is a developing preparation to leave things she knew on earth, before her traveling to heaven, or another state of existence. Readers who interpret only concrete images will not understand Rossetti's poem ‘Dream Land’.
But the interpretation of imagery belongs to the reader. If the imagery is taken as concrete not abstract, then the speaker of the poem is describing the 'charmed sleep' as death. The Dream Land of death is now peaceful and pleasant, because she is conscious of nothing at all, and feels no pain. The line 'sleep that no pain shall wake/ Night that no morn shall break.' would in this context mean death. In the abstract it is death as an enchanted sleep, like in the story of Snow White, waiting for a kiss of life to wake her.
In either case this is definitely “Rest, rest at the heart's core /Till time shall cease: ”. An indefinite duration of sleep until a clear moment of profound change, a kind of transfiguration, “Till joy shall overtake /Her perfect peace.” The exact meaning of this final image I leave for personal choice. However the beauty of lines in such poems, should not be forgotten, even if exact meaning is disputed.

Poem has a dour theme of sleeping from life, then dying which is a joy in the end, fulfilling the sleep dream.

Peace perfect in a dream land is nicely depicted by the poet!

A perfect classic piece! ! Such power in the words employed! ! It's such a comfort to read this poem...like a lullaby that gives hope with images of stillness and tranquility.. A gem among poems...

Her dream land is perfectly poised. We can feel all the softnes about it. 'That single star..', see, the effect of the image. The opening lines are simply classic and the last lines really tell the true nature of her dream. Dream can be joy personified.

This poem is somewhat chilling, but the darkness, which makes up this dream land, is perfectly soft, so one does not feel cold at all. Very, very nice!