I am running away from reality, as fast as i could.
and trying not to look back, so as to prevent my eye from tearing.
The Dream Pang
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Jesus. Its hardly 4 AM and I have already woken up, had some cereals and watched a movie. This is what I get for sleeping at 9 PM. The exhaustion that I had felt all this week came crashing back to me last evening and all I could do was ignore everything around me and just let it take over me. When I fell asleep, it was more of a conscious decision rather than trying to rationalize and fight to keep myself awake and be sane in doing whatever that I did. It is always better to listen to what body is saying. It is usually correct. Dream Pang...I read this poem a long time ago in passing and never gave much thought about it. Though it is one of Frost's celebrated poem, it is something that never really gave me anything to think with. I am not really much of a fan of poems on self induced isolation and probable alienation. But last evening I was organizing my bookmarks for better housekeeping and I stumpled upon a link which analyzed this poem. I read the poem a few times more than necessary till I memorized. Its not like I love this poem or anything but the beauty of the poem lies in the way it can be interpreted in numerous ways. A man is searching for a woman in his dreams. He has isolated himself to the forest and by doing so he has created first level of barrier between himself and the rest of the world which includes the woman too. In his dream, he sees the woman but he lacks something which would make him break his barriers and go to her. Since its just a dream, all he had to do was reach out his hand and break the barrier but he doesn't and that's the pang he feels. Since it was a dream, he could have had no barriers at all being the owner of dream and having control over it, but his real life isolation creeps into his dream too and that's where the tone of the poem changes completely - For the woods wake, and you are here for proof. I am not sure how to understand or fit in couple of lines in this poem. The man seems to have alienated himself from the people wantingly yet he reaches out to one particular person not conciously but only in his dreams. It seems to me Frost is talking about majority of humanity. Everyone in their minds is isolated to an extent that its impenetrable to any outsider irrespective of the closeness or the bond that they may share. It is natural prerogative of human to wish and want something and rarely be outspoken about it. Isolation and alienation might also refer to the walls that we create around us trying to ensure that there are no external factors or emotions can penetrate the wall and hurt us. Yet, deep in our hearts, we do desire for something irrational where we surrender to all our senses (what better example to this than a woman? At least from a man's point of view) yet there is something which is stopping us from doing so. Are walls around us so thick that even in our most vulnerable state we don't give into that desire to be free of anything surrouding us? I wonder how it will be to give into mind and do what it dictates.
I read a line while reading something random - "When I get a call in the middle of the night, I know that it is important. Not important to me, but important enough to get dressed and go back to work. But if the call is personal, only then I sit up straight and try to priortize, evaluate the importance and bargain my presence or my input against much needed sleep." I love this line!