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The Force of Dreams

I dreamed of you last night.  I dreamed and dreamed,
Yet more, as if there never had been dreams
In me before.  Reality it seemed
Had never been reality.  Green dreams
Of Eden never could have been like you
There in this night of nights.  If Eden’s green
Had interrupted, then a threatened view
Of sin would have intruded on the scene,
So dreams would have been tainted by the false,
But actuality of dreams reigned best.
Theology could never learn to waltz
As you did in these dreams so purely dressed.
_Yet they were only dreams.  They could not blend
__With you, you, you where eyes and hair contend.

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Phillip Whidden is an American living in England who has been published in America, England, Scotland (and elsewhere) in book form, online, and in journals. 

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13 Responses

  1. Gigi Ryan

    Dear Phillip,

    This poem is deep and rich. To know love that would inspire such a poem is a magnificent gift (and no doubt a lot of work.) At the same time it makes the grief from loss all the more painful. And what a dear picture to accompany the poem.
    Thank you.
    Gigi

    Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    Indeed, a forceful sonnet, breaking the bounds of reality to think of love (and loss) that cannot be expressed. The picture is a perfect complement. It almost seems frivolous to speak of the simple artistry that brings forth this emotional power, but it is admirable in its simplicity. The technique of repetition is used to the full. It becomes most intense in the final couplet, with “you,” pronounced three times, and the couplet rhyme words “blend” and “contend” concealing and revealing the sad “end” of love’s reality in these superlative dreams. End rhymes are all perfect, as is the syntax comprehensibly divided into seven sentences. And they are perfectly natural speech, in no way contrived. Your mastery of sound, Phillip, appears as well in unobtrusive use of identical rhyme, internal rhyme, and alliteration. A rare and wonderful love song!

    Reply
  3. C.B. Anderson

    This was nearly an incredible sonnet, but it fell apart in the end. Don’t make me explain.

    Reply
    • B. Petroschuk

      I don’t know about other readers of C. B. Anderson’s comment on “The Force of Dreams,” how other readers feel about that comment, but I find it objectionable.  Of course he has the right to be objectionable.  Everyone does (except where criminality is involved—and perhaps where sinfulness is).  One gets the impression from his statement that even he knows he has overstepped some line.  Otherwise I find it weird that he doesn’t want to explain his position:  “Don’t make me explain.”  Believe me, C. B. Anderson, I do not want to make you explain.  Quite the opposite.  I hope very much you do not explain.  I personally have heard enough from you in this matter already…maybe too much already.  So, I beg you not to explain.  You will be doing a good deed by not explaining anywhere that I will be likely to come across the explanation.  I wouldn’t object if you gave your explanation in an out of the way, unknown cornfield or in the place where Joseph Smith says he received the tablets of the scriptures he then presented to the world as being communicated to him from God.  I have done a tiny bit of reading of what is called your poetry.  What I have read is light verse, not actual poetry.  I suppose that in that cornfield you might be elevated to a position to comment on real poetry, such as that in “The Force of Dreams.”  Yes, let other people in that corfield hear or read any further comments you may make in this matter.  I do note wonderingly that you are highly educated and have seen that your verse (not all of it light verse?) has been published in several places, not all of them cornfields, I suppose.  Congratulations.  I will remark, though, that your comment seems well out of step with the other comments above, presumably from other highly educated people.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Really, B. Petroschuk, you are overreacting. All Anderson said was that the poem started out well, but did not succeed at the end. And you’re complaining as if he committed high treason by expressing his opinion.

        No one has to “explain” a negative opinion if they don’t want to, or if they think that doing so is a waste of time.

        It is unseemly and indecorous of you to attack C.B. Anderson in this childish manner, with silly comments about cornfields and Joseph Smith. Anderson is one of the best formalist poets writing in the English-speaking world today.

      • C.B. Anderson

        I thank you, Joseph, and since Retroshuck has actually begged me not to explain, I will honor his entreaty by keeping mum on the matter henceforth. But I’m glad, at least, that he seems to like my light verse, and I wish him the best in the cornfield of his dreams.

  4. Phillip Whidden

    Dear Gigi Ryan, Your very positive response to the sonnet is wonderful. Thank you. I’m glad you liked the picture. It was of me and my wife dressed in our back garden for our 40th wedding anniversary.

    Reply
  5. Phillip Whidden

    Dear Margaret Coats, I am very touched that you are completely thorough in your working through the methods deployed in the sonnet. You are far from a lazy reader, far, far. I want to tell you that some quite traditional thinkers have indicated to me that they are somewhat surprised to see sonnets by me that are not about love and death–which these people think of as the correct subject matter for sonnets. Oh, well. I rather think they won’t find the subject matter of this sonnet outside their usual expectations. I hope others are as moved by it as you seem to have been. Upon reading it a friend of mine who does not like engaging with such sophisticated poetry said that when he writes a novel, he is going to stick one of my sonnets into it–he adds that it is very unlikely he will write a novel. So a bit of dry humor has been added to the mix. (James Reis has already put one of my sonnets into his novel). 21st C sonnets are widening the reach of traditional poetry.

    Reply
  6. Paul A. Freeman

    The chanting repetitions and internal rhymes carry this poem forcefully through to a gobsmacking end.

    Thanks for the read, Phillip.

    Reply
    • Phillip Whidden

      Paul A. Freeman, thank you. I could have sworn that I replied to your comment already, but I don’t see it here. I’m sorry about that. I loved that for you the force of the “chanting repetitions” and rhymes forced the sonnet to a “gobsmacking end.” I like how you insist that the poem as a whole works towards this powerful effect. Thanking me for “the read” is an added nice touch. I hope you have many other good reads in your life.

      Reply
  7. Shamik Banerjee

    This sonnet bears a different kind of language: a language that’s modern yet still somehow reminiscent of the golden age of poetry. The speaker’s unfathomable love for his beloved can be felt through the notion that this very dream about her challenges reality and makes the speaker feel as if he never dreamt any dream before; Eden’s verdant beauty is just a speck before his beloved’s matchless beauty. The closing couplet makes this sonnet even more powerful. I am particularly very impressed with the last line. I think there could be no other way of expressing her beauty other than telling us about the competition between her hair and eyes. Profound thought!

    Reply
  8. Phillip Whidden

    Dear Shamik Banerjee, thank you for such a beautiful response to the sonnet. Dare I say that beauty begets beauty? That the “very” “dreaming” “challenges reality” is exactly right. In fact it implies (or even says) that dreaming of this powerful sort is a very real reality, so much so that this dreaming was so strong that it seemed to wipe out any dreaming he had ever done before. This is extreme, but then dreams are often extreme. I’m especially pleased that the couplet–and its last line particularly–increased the power of the sonnet. That the power therein was profound for you tells me a lot about you, Shamik Banerjee…”reminiscent of the golden age of poetry” is praise from you indeed. We need more people who are as gifted and sensitive as you.

    Reply

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