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In Silent Dream
In silent dream my lonely spirit drifts
So once again I may upon you gaze,
And walk with you through dream-world's silent haze,
As your soft words my lonesome heart do lift.
Your smile to me is as a precious gift
That soothes and comforts me in ev'ry way.
Your ghost-like form that haunts me all the day
I feel is real, as through my mind you drift.
But with the coming of the dawn it ends,
And I awake to realise 'tis so.
But I must bear the pain the day will send;
Yet to the world my strife I dare not show,
Until sweet sleep again my heart will mend,
And dream of lasting love I cannot know.
Copyright © 1974 Alan John Branford
This sonnet was written some time during 1974 when I was 15 or 16 years old. It reveals the turmoil my soul was in trying to reconcile my homosexual attraction to other boys and the prevailing societal attitudes.
This sonnet is written in a strict Petrarchan form, with a total of only four rhymes, two in the octave and two in the sestet. The classical Petrarchan structure of
A B B A A B B A C D C D C D
has been used. The adherence to this formal structure is intended to give to poem the solemnity that it deserves.
It is intriguing to compare this sonnet with the sonnet "Thinking of Daniel", which was written over 40 years later in July 2016, in the same Petrarchan form. The specific story told in the latter would appear to have influenced the former.
(July 2016)
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Copyright © Alan John Branford
Last Update: 10 May, 2017