Taming the Beast in The Dream
Dreams have long been the basis for extensive analysis, their meanings interpreted and reinterpreted. Some people believe that dreams reflect our repressed emotions, providing a necessary outlet for the negative aspects of our reality. Others find answers through dreams, believing that dreams provide simple solutions to seemingly complex issues in our lives. Louise Bogan, in her poem "The Dream," describes a dream that expresses both repression and solution. It is a poem about fear, and Bogan's message--the message of the dream, in fact--is that fear can be tamed through trust.
In the first stanza of the poem the speaker describes the fearful dream she had. Bogan introduces the symbol of a mighty horse that embodies the fear and retribution carried from the speaker's childhood, fear and retribution that have been "kept for thirty-five years" (3). Bogan effectively uses metaphorical language as she describes the fear personified inthe horse as it "poured through his mane" (3) and the retribution as it "breathed through his nose" (4). The source of her fear is unclear, but it may be that the horse is a symbol of life that can be both beautiful and terrifying. The imagery created when the speaker tells us, "the terrible horse began / To paw at the air, and make for me with his blows" (1-2) describes a sense of entrapment as life corners her and spews forth repressed fear and retribution, emotions that must be faced.
The speaker's shame at her cowardice is clear in the second stanza as she describes how she "lay on the ground and wept" (5). It is at this point that Bogan introduces another symbol in the poem, a woman who "leapt for the rein" (6). The stranger's strength and cour...
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...eaning is clear, the last line contains three successive iambs in "put down his head in love." Also, after a routine rhyme scheme of abab in the first three stanzas, Bogan introduces new tension in the last stanza with an abba rhyme scheme. The word "love" comes fresh and unexpectedly to rhyme with "glove," just as Bogan's poem points out that with trust comes peace, often just as fresh and unexpectedly.
Louise Bogan points out in her poem that life is rarely as predictable as we might like, but it must be faced, regardless of our fears. Like the speaker, we may be surprised by the gentleness and peace we find when we face life head on, offer it our love, and surrender to its power--just as it surrenders to ours.
Works Cited
Bogan, Louise. "The Dream." The Riverside Anthology of Literature. Ed. Douglas Hunt. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1990. 730.
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Other." Dreams and Inward Journeys. 3rd Ed. Eds. Marjorie Ford & John Ford. New York: Longman, 1988. 363-364.
The lady seems to be poor “suffering along in her broke shows” tells us that she has nothing and is worthless. Emotive language has been used to visually describe how she looks. “with a sack of bones on her back and a song in her brain” this expresses that she in a free, happy minded lady and doesn’t really take note of what she doesn’t have. " to feed the outlaws prowling about the Domain” This tell us that she most likely does this act of kindness very often, not having much at all and simple giving the outlaws something to feed on. “proudly they step up to meet her” Giving this visual effect makes us understand the power this lady has for these feral cats and to also see how much this lady means to this cats. “with love and power” - juxtaposition, again shows us the emotive language between the two this also means that she has a sense of power which she doesn’t have with the outer world. This perception of the lady is very different as to what how we see her. She is to be seen as a person who you wouldn’t want so associate with. Throughout the poem she has been moved from a princess to a queen with the development of metaphors. But to the cats she is the queen and this really depicts the distinctively visual. Douglas Stewart is seeing her as this queen who is celebrated and appreciated by the cats but this is not how she feels with society. With this connection between the cats, it gives us a deeper understanding of how to perceptions of each individual sees the world. Every individual has their own sense of views of the
On the article “On a Date Rape” by Camille Paglia, creates a controversy discussion about how women have reached freedom throughout the years and blames young feminist for being “over privileged”. Her belief is that women in general misuse the social freedom she so virtuously fought for. She also mentioned that her generation was aware of the risk that they were taking, while today’s generation does not. However, she blames any young lady who finds herself into a perilous situation for the tragedy that follows; moreover, Paglia’s article is unreliable due to the abuse of several fallacies such as hasty generalization, false analogy, false cause, poising well, false dilemma, slippery slope, as well as straw men.
The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned he sinks in a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened. He is both the hind with the person he is tormenting, and the tiger that
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” This quote from Walt Disney addressing the concept of achieving dreams is very accurate, and can be seen throughout literature today and in the past. Dreams can give people power or take away hope, and influence how people live their lives based upon whether they have the determination to attack their dreams or not; as seen through characters like the speaker in Harlem by Langston Hughes and Lena and Walter Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun.
There are a couple of similes the author uses in the poem to stress the helplessness she felt in childhood. In the lines, “The tears/ running down like mud” (11,12), the reader may notice the words sliding down the page in lines 12-14 like mud and tears that flowed in childhood days. The speaker compares a...
According to the Rape Crisis Council of Pickens County, one out of every four females will be sexually assaulted in their college years. However, rape counts for only seven percent of the college...
When people think of rape, they might think of a stranger jumping out of a shadowy place and sexually attacking someone. But in fact there different forms of sexual assault. Acquaintance Rape also known as date rape, is one of the most common among female adolescents and college students. About 60% of all reported rapes are committed by someone the victim knew. Rape is a crime of violence, and you can be arrested, prosecuted and properly punished by the law.
Traditional or common knowledge views of rape portray the act as something a crazy stranger commits on another stranger. However, this is simply not the case. The vast majority of rapes, sometimes up to 70%, involve a victim who was previously known to the offender (Woods and Porter 2008). The data does not totally support this view, however. This is because only an estimated 18% of acquaintance rape is reported to the police (Woods and Porter 2008). For comparative purposes, an estimated 79% of stranger rape is reported. Research suggests that each type of forcible rape has a more frequent setting (Woods and Porter 2008). When a rape happens indoors, the victim is more likely to have had a close personal relationship with the offender (Woods and Porter 2008). In fact, the rape usually occurs in either the offender’s or victim’s home (Woods and Porter 2008). The National Institute of Justice reports that women are raped dramatically more than men are; 18% of women report being raped at least once in their life, in contrast to just the 3% of men who report being raped in their lifetime (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). Of minority groups, 34% of American-Indian women report being raped in their lifetime, the highest percentage of any group; the lowest percentage is Pacific Islander women, of whom only 7% report being raped in their lifetime (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). The data suggests that rape occurs at an early age. Nearly a quarter of female rape victims and nearly one half of male rape victims were younger than 12 years old when first raped (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). The percent of victims first raped when younger than 18 years of age is nearly three quarters for men and over half for women (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). “Women who w...
Rape can happen to anyone. Women from different cultures, races, ages, and economic level are all vulnerable. It does not matter who you are or where you live, although women of lowest status are most vulnerable to rape, and so are Hispanic and African American women. (An...
in the first line of this stanza when she says “ I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide” i believe whats she is trying to explain is that she feels powerful just like the ocean and she can surfaces the earth feeling capable of defeating all her difficulties. Her use of metaphor was expressed very effectively because it allows us to understand her pain and it also allows us to acknowledge why she is writing this poem. She does not want someones words to break us and wants us to understand that we are in charge of our own happiness.
...dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.”
I am a 19-year-old girl, far too old to think I know everything. I don’t pretend to be an expert on rape. Having known the feel of a cold blade pressed to my side gave me no superior understanding of the crime, only a small scar to remember it by. Thus I offer you no solution. I cannot say with any conviction that my writing will help to save even one person from being subjected to a similar fate. Before you’ve read to the bottom of this page three more girls will be sexually assaulted, one girl will be raped. Neither the eloquence of my words, nor the fervor of my voice will have changed a thing.
Rape is when someone forces you to take part in sexual activity of any kind if you have said "no" and do not consent. Date rape is when someone you know through social connections forces you into sex. It doesn't have to just be intercourse, it could be oral sex or anal sex. Penetration can be from a body part or an object. It can happen to boys just as it could happen to girls, and boys are typically raped by other men. Rapists could make physical and verbal threats, and they could also use emotional blackmail. Date rape attackers...