Dreams and Escape

Where it surfaces

• On Death

  Life is described as a dream and scenes of bliss as phantoms, suggesting death as an escape or final awakening.

• To Hope

  Hope is portrayed as a celestial balm and a source of 'fair dreams' that can lift the speaker from the 'bare heath of life' into a brighter, idealized realm.

• On Receiving a Curious Shell and a Copy of Verses from the Same Ladies

  The speaker uses the magical scroll and canopy to escape from the trammels of pain, finding bliss and repose through imaginative reverie.

• Sonnet: Happy Is England!

  The speaker's languishment and inward groan for foreign skies reveal a desire to escape the familiar.

• Specimen of an Induction to a Poem

  The poem yearns for an idealized chivalric past, offering an escape into imagination.

• Calidore

  Calidore's journey and the idyllic castle setting suggest a dreamlike escape from reality.

• Epistle to My Brother George

  The speaker describes escaping sorrow through poetic trance and envisions enchanted realms beyond mortal sight.

• On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour

  The longing for regions clear and far, and the spirit contending against solitude, suggests an escape into an idealized, imaginative realm.

• Sleep and Poetry

  The poem celebrates sleep as a gentle escape and uses visions of poetry as a means to transcend ordinary reality.

• Endymion

  Endymion rejects his former 'cloudy phantasms' and 'visionary seas,' choosing instead a life grounded in mortal love.

• Endymion, Book I

  Endymion's dream of the moon goddess offers an escape from earthly sorrow, but also plunges him into longing and confusion.

• III

  Glaucus's initial freedom in the ocean and his trance-like state in Circe's bower represent escapist dreams that turn into nightmares.

• Lines

  The speaker imagines a heavenly renewal and a day of dalliance, suggesting an escape into a blissful, dreamlike state.

• Lines on the Mermaid Tavern

  The vision of poets drinking in the Zodiac under a new-old sign evokes a dreamlike escape from earthly bounds into eternal revelry.

• A Draught of Sunshine

  The speaker seeks escape from earthly bounds through a draught of sunshine, leading to a soul-flight and a desire for divine union.

• To John Hamilton Reynolds

  The speaker fantasizes about manipulating time to create a perpetual state of joy and reunion, an escape from the ordinary passage of days.

• At Teignmouth

  The speaker contrasts the idyllic rural setting with the undesirable urban environment of Soho, expressing a desire to escape to nature.

• XLI

  The imagery of restless sleep and the dissolving Spirit evokes themes of escape and troubled dreams.

• An Extempore

  The Mule's escape from servitude and the magical transformations of the servants highlight themes of liberation and the desire to break free from constraints.

• Canto the XII

  The faery court represents a magical escape from reality, but the empty court and the servants' punishments highlight the dangers of such escapism.

• A Song About Myself

  The boy's impulsive journey northward embodies a whimsical escape from home and convention.

• Written in the Cottage Where Burns Was Born

  The speaker imagines Burns dreaming alone on budded bays, happy and thoughtless of doom.

• A Prophecy

  The lullaby and prophetic vision create a dreamlike atmosphere, envisioning the child's escape into a poetic destiny.

• Fancy

  The poem advocates for fancy as a liberating force that allows escape from the dulling effects of repeated experience, offering an idealized, ever-fresh realm of delight.

• The Eve of St. Agnes

  Madeline's dream vision and the lovers' flight from the castle represent a desire to escape harsh reality into a world of imagination and bliss.

• V

  The revelry and the Lady's focus on St. Agnes suggest a turn toward romantic fantasy and escape.

• St. Agnes' Eve Rituals

  The promise of visions of delight and soft adorings suggests an escape into dreamlike experiences.

• VII

  Madeline's yearning for St. Agnes' dreams represents a desire to escape her present reality.

• VIII

  Madeline is 'hoodwink'd with faery fancy,' lost in anticipation of the magical ritual.

• XV

  Madeline's enchanted sleep and the 'lap of legends old' evoke a dreamlike escape from reality.

• XVI

  The speaker insists the lady should be left to dream alone with her good angels, emphasizing a desire for escape from worldly wickedness.

• XXII

  Madeline's trance-like state and the ethereal imagery of her movement suggest a dreamlike escape from reality.

• XXVI

  Madeline dreams awake, seeing St. Agnes in her fancy, escaping into a vision.

• XXVII

  Madeline's sleep is portrayed as a blissful haven from both joy and pain, emphasizing the theme of escape through dreams.

• XXVIII

  Madeline's deep sleep and the hushed, dreamlike atmosphere of the chamber evoke a sense of escape from the waking world.

• XXIX

  The contrast between the boisterous feast and the quiet bedside suggests a retreat into a private, dreamlike moment.

• XXXII

  Madeline's dream is described as a 'midnight charm' that holds her in a steadfast spell, emphasizing the theme of escape into an idealized, dreamlike state.

• XXXIV

  Madeline's waking vision blurs the boundary between dream and reality, highlighting the theme of escape through dreams.

• XXXVI

  Porphyro melts into Madeline's dream, symbolizing an escape from reality into a transcendent, idealized realm.

• XXXVII

  Madeline's initial belief that Porphyro's presence is a dream contrasts with the harsh reality of his potential departure.

• XXXVIII

  Madeline is called a 'sweet dreamer,' linking her to the realm of dreams and romantic escape.

• XXXIX

  Porphyro's call to flee the revelry and seek a home in the moors embodies a dreamlike escape from reality.

• XL

  The hurried escape through a dark, stormy castle reflects the theme of fleeing reality for a dreamlike union.

• Ode on Indolence

  The speaker chooses the drowsy bliss of indolence over the demands of Love, Ambition, and Poesy, seeking escape in idle visions.

• I

  The vision of the three figures suggests a dreamlike or supernatural encounter, offering an escape from ordinary reality.

• II

  The speaker's desire to be left in a state of nothingness reflects a longing for escape from sensory experience.

• III

  The speaker's yearning for wings to follow the visionary figures reflects a desire for escape into an idealized realm.

• Chapter IV

  The speaker yearns for an age sheltered from change and the busy world, seeking escape in indolence.

• V

  The speaker's sleep is embroidered with dim dreams, suggesting an escape into a dream world.

• VI

  The speaker turns from the ghosts to embrace visions for the night and day, seeking escape in imagination.

• La Belle Dame Sans Merci

  The knight's dream of pale kings and warriors reveals the illusory nature of his escape with the faery lady.

• IV

  The encounter with a faery child suggests a departure from reality into a dreamlike, enchanted realm.

• V

  The speaker's total absorption in the faery lady suggests an escape from reality into an enchanted dream.

• VIII

  The elfin grot and the act of kissing to sleep evoke a dreamlike escape from reality.

• IX

  The speaker's dream is a central focus, representing an escape that ends in sorrow.

• La Belle Dame sans Merci

  The vision of pale kings and warriors suggests a dreamlike state or escape into a supernatural realm.

• XI

  The speaker awakens from a dream or vision to a cold reality.

• To Sleep

  Sleep is invoked as a means of forgetfulness and release from the burdens of the waking world, embodying the desire for escape.

• Another on Fame

  The poem explores the elusive nature of fame, suggesting that detachment and indifference are the keys to attaining it, akin to a dream that flees when pursued.

• Ode to Psyche

  The speaker describes a dreamlike vision and seeks to create an inner sanctuary of imagination.

• Ode to Psyche

  The speaker questions whether the vision was a dream, emphasizing a dreamlike escape into an imagined forest scene.

• V

  The speaker constructs an inner world of thought and fancy as a retreat from reality.

• II

  The speaker longs to drink and leave the world unseen, seeking escape into a dim forest.

• IV

  The speaker seeks to escape the limitations of the mortal world through the imaginative flight of poetry, leaving behind the 'dull brain' and earthly constraints.

• VIII

  The speaker grapples with the boundary between vision and reality, questioning whether the nightingale's song was a waking dream.

• Lines to Fanny

  The speaker seeks to escape his torment through dreams of his beloved, concluding with 'it is enough for me to dream of thee'.

• Hyperion: A Vision

  The chapter is framed as a dream-vision, with the speaker entering a surreal, otherworldly realm.

• Canto I

  The entire chapter is framed as a dream, with the narrator moving from a paradisiacal garden to a sacred temple, exploring the power of dreams to reveal deeper truths.

• The Cap and Bells

  Bellanaine dreams of 'Master Hubert' and the faery journey itself is an escape from reality, though fraught with peril.

• III

  The emperor's promise to retreat from mortal temptations and espouse an immaterial wife reflects a desire to escape into a faery realm.

• V

  The princess journeys through a real heaven, blending sleep and waking in a dreamlike flight.

• LVIII

  The plan to charm Bertha and swiftly escape to the palace suggests a dreamlike, magical escape.

• LXXVII

  The scene depicts a dreamlike revelry with dancing, repose, and dozing in a moonlit setting, suggesting escape from reality.

• LXXIX

  The Princess falls asleep and dreams, suggesting an escape from waking reality.

• LXXX

  The journey and the speaker's hopeful tone suggest an escape or dreamlike progression.