Beautiful Dreamer

Beautiful Dreamer

-Stephen Foster

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,

Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;

Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,

Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away!

Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,

List while I woo thee with soft melody;

Gone are the cares of life's busy throng.

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,

Mermaids are chaunting the whild lorelie;

Over the streamlet vapors are borne,

Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.

Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,

E'en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;

Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

The poem is a song for a lover. I think the "Beautiful Dreamer" is a woman who is very attractive and beautiful to the poet. When I read the poem one time, I thought it was just talking to a lover to wake him up with a soft, sweet voice or with love. But as I read the poem several times, I realized that the song is for a woman who is like a sun and the morning.

"Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;" this line made me to think of her as a sun or a morning because starlight and dewdrops fade away when the morning comes and the sun rises.

"moonlight have all pass'd away!" it means that the morning is almost there, and still the poet is singing for the woman to wake him up.

But since the sun didn't rise yet, the man didn't wake up.

"queen of my song," this means that the audience of this poem, or a focus of this poem is on a woman or a lover of the poet.

"Gone are the cares of life's busy throng." means that the poet is not busy, and has enough time to spare unlike the other city people who are really busy and mean.

"Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chaunting the whild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn."-> In this lines, it also talks about how the woman is like the sun that makes the bright coming morn. Also the poet describes of a witch at the sea, Lorelie, and the mermaids who chant about the witch.

"Then will all clouds of sorrow depart," This last line tells me to think of me a sun again since it explains how the clouds of sorrow would go away. This time, the poet used a metaphor, saying "clouds of sorrow". I think the whole poem can turn into an extended metaphor.

If the woman was compared as a sun, or a morning, then the life's busy throng can be the poet's other days when the woman is not beside him. Moreover, the mermaids are the others who admire the woman's beauty or sing for her. The dewdrops and clouds mean the moments when he is in "SLEEP" while she is not near him. Since the poem is a love song for a lover, I thought that the woman is being valued like a sun or a morning to the poet.