‘Perchance to dream’ is an offer that most of us would accept in the blink of an eye. That mysterious ‘other world’ where the day’s reality is processed by our subconscious, really is a mystery, even to the experts and self-help books who decipher our beguiling imaginings with all sorts of reasonings. Perhaps the better truth is that most of us don’t remember much about our dreams, unlike its near neighbour the nightmare! Day-dreams too fall into a fantasy imagining where we try to re-route the natural course of events as we move from one emotion to another.
Our unconscious dreams seem essential for our mental and emotional well-being and some believe they provide solutions, answers and prophesize important events. In the conscious world we use the word to describe our goals, desires and wishes which reveal much about who we are and our chosen path for life.
Whatever their significance may or may not be, they are universal and a subject on which our poets have much to say.
With such a rich seam to mine, our poets from Sarojini Naidu to Lewis Carroll, Edna St Vincent Millay to Shakespeare by way of Antonio Machado and Longfellow and a host of others provide a pillowful of poems that will set you dreaming.