Dreams Poem by Robert Herrick

As usual Pruchnicki mistakes my comment and ignores the fact that it was no more than a suggestion. Freudian psychology deals with the symbolic nature of dream - and symbols are indicative of a shared consciousness. When we are awake we are (especially in the West) always attempting to emphasise our individual uniqueness. When dreams take us over, we lose control of our consciousness, and, perhaps, engage with that deeper world which is common to us all.

This poem plays on my mind and frustrates me, similarly to when i think about the universe, how it can be endless and big beyond comprehension, but i will give my opinion on what i think it means; he is saying that by day we all go to our life and whatever it is we are doing, by night our dreams are reflection of our world, which is our daily life..........

please help me understand this poem. it is simple, yet one must be complicated to understand, or its complicated and one must be simple to understand, or it could be simlpy complicated, yet with no irony. maybe if i read it right? does it mean that in our working day we are all caught in a reality in the same cercumstances and at night we are all set free to our own worlds? i dare comment on this great artists work though i'm a novice. guide me to perfection. i'm originally an artist of images but i'm trying words now

Let me get this straight, you guys (Straw & Psachos) : by day we assert whatever we are as individual human beings, and by night in the chaotic world of dreams we share the deepest things (?) ! Have I got that right? And then there's the rationality of the reality and its imaginary contradiction in dreams? But dreams do not constitute logical argument, do they? Dreams most likely belong to the right hemispere of the brain, which governs nonverbal behavior and allows us to think wordlessly, right? Artists learn to trust the right brain and its illogic, and politicians distort logic to mislead us, agree? Herrick was on to something before his time, like most creative artists!

Or is it by day we assert our individuality, and by night find the deep things that we share?

Profound, In two lines you said every possible thing about dream...

Dream a nice poem in very limited lines and interested.

It seems quite straightforward to me. Why Straw et al want to stand it on it's head I don't know. Just contrariness, perhaps. Dreams are mostly a side-effect of internal housekeeping of the brain, to do with transferring memories from short-term to long-term storage etc. They don't usually make sense, though this is an over-simplification.

What is a dream? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

But I think it not only in dreams, individualism shows us the rest of social compromise we are always in different world, we exist. Here in the poem dream is the word, limiting the perception...Otherwise the writing supplies oxygen to a reader of feeling poetry by heart.................................................... Pranab k c