"Dare To Dream"
Dare to dream of ships and kings
Of rings of gold and pleasant things
Of skies of blue for miles long
Of finding new ways to be strong
Dare to dream of fighting sharks
On a new life which you embark
By boat or plane or haunted train
Hurry now; it leaves today
Dare to dream of huge success
Of values and money to invest
And if to you now I may confess
I have dreamed of you to ease my stress
Dare to dream of happy times
Of worlds existing without crime
Of fountains of candy spewing drops
Of exotic tastes; it never stops
Dare to dream of great adventure
That you one day will find your treasure
Hidden beneath depths unexplored
Before deciding to unlock that door
Dare to dream of future goals
Of you and me for truth betold
I have dreamed of us behind the notes
Of the perfect melody I composed
I still have dreams not yet shattered
By life or weight of any matter
I keep them in a place that's safe
From guns or knives or losing faith
All of us; we always dream
Of randomness or subtle themes
Of winning big or love achieved
Of crazy heights or shapes deceived
We always dream; but don't remember
To write them down from last November
To ponder them as maybe fact
To think of them as abstract
But with all these dreams it seems to me
There's more to life than I believe
There's more to us than meets the eye
There's more to do so don't be shy
Express yourself through vivid dreams
There's more to life than you can see
So don't be afraid to believe
In what you one day will achieve
The first stanza is very strong, and I love the progression of imagery. The only thing is, the last line feels a little awkward rhythm-wise. It's something to do with the emphasis on 'finding new ways'. Instead of alternating stressed and non-stress syllables like the rest of the stanza, 'new ways' gives two stressed syllables next to each other which kind of throws it off.
Fighting sharks are totally awesome, but they don't seem to fit with the idea of transportation/starting an adventure. Maybe break those two ideas into two stanzas?
The same sort of goes for the next stanza, I love that you touch on material things and successes, but they don't quite seem to connect to the confessions of thinking about someone.
In the fourth stanza, 'existing' feels a bit forced, and the last line seems to be there mostly for the rhyme, but fountains spewing candy drops was a fantastic image.
In the fifth stanza, 'before' is the only thing that doesn't quite seem to fit, since it seems like unlocking the door should go along with adventure, and that you should be diving right into it without pause. That aside, the adventure/treasure slant rhyme felt really natural, which is tricky.
Same with the slant rhyme on goals and betold, it technically breaks the rhyme scheme but you wouldn't notice because the rhythm and meter stays consistent. I like that better than forcing a rhyme.
Love the first two lines of the eighth stanza! Definitely captures a little slice of life. November doesn't feel like it has any significance other than rhyme (though what do I know?), but that being said "We always dream; but don't remember" stands on its own as an idea really well. The following line need not continue that sentence at all, which maybe opens up some more rhyming options. The last line of that stanza also feels like it needs another syllable, but I love that you changed the length of the stanzas and I love that stanza's progression overall.
"There's more to life" twice feels a little redundant. I definitely see the sort of circular-ness (great vocab, right?) you're going for there, but since the parallelism is so close together you don't need to bring it back to the beginning. "Express yourself through vivid dreams" -- love this!
And this is totally just me, but reading it aloud, I feel like, "So do not be afraid, believe" fits the meter a bit better.
Definitely enjoyed it overall, and definitely love that you've sought to inspire.
Note: If everyone was as good at poetry as you are, "BleedTheDream180," the world would be a better place.
-- HL
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