A Dream by William Blake

For the Romantics Dreams played a very special role in our lives. It was an indication of our imaginative capacities to reach into other realms. In this poem we experience a dream that Blake had about an ant that becomes isolated from its community.

We learn more about Blakes view of imagination, the self, innocence and the loss of innocence in "A Dream."

A DREAM
 By William Blake
 
 Once a dream did weave a shade
 O'er my angel-guarded bed,
 That an emmet lost its way
 Where on grass methought I lay.
 
 Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
 Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
 Over many a tangle spray,
 All heart-broke, I heard her say:
 
 'Oh my children! do they cry,
 Do they hear their father sigh?
 Now they look abroad to see,
 Now return and weep for me.'
 
 Pitying, I dropped a tear:
 But I saw a glow-worm near,
 Who replied, 'What wailing wight
 Calls the watchman of the night?
 
 'I am set to light the ground,
 While the beetle goes his round:
 Follow now the beetle's hum;
 Little wanderer, hie thee home! '