Love, if I weep it will not matter,
And if you laugh I shall not care;
Foolish am I to think about it,
But it is good to feel you there.

Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,—
White and awful the moonlight reached
Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,
There was a shutter loose,—it screeched!

Swung in the wind,—and no wind blowing!—
I was afraid, and turned to you,
Put out my hand to you for comfort,—
And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew,

Under my hand the moonlight lay!
Love, if you laugh I shall not care,
But if I weep it will not matter,—
Ah, it is good to feel you there!

Analysis, meaning and summary of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem The Dream

2 Comments

  1. priscilla says:

    This poem is one of my favorites by Edna St. Vincent Millay because there are so many ways of interperting it. i think that the speaker in this poem just broke up with their lover and is realizing just how much she misses them when she awakes from a nightmare scared with no one to comfort her. I also think she is trying to convince herself that she no longer has feelings for her ex-lover but deep down inside she knows she does.

  2. Bridget says:

    The dream is a wonderful poem, expressing how real dreams are, and how, when you wake from one, all you really want is to be held by the one you love.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.