"KEEPER OF MY DREAMS"
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| Perth, Australia |
Denise Mangano was born in Perth, Australia where she states that "Growing up on a 6000 acre wheat and sheep farm, where I learned that being alone, does not mean you have to be lonely. Not when you have your imagination to take you to places you have only ever read about, or those special places that you and you alone, can create in your mind". (http://www.authorsden.com/visi/author.asp?id=66122) She uses her loneliness to expand her imagination and creativity, I admire this about her because she used her life's weakness (loneliness) in a positive way to help her create and write all her wonderful poems. Denise is a very outgoing person that puts her soul, past, life and emotions into each poem. Most of her poems show very deep emotions towards others and use a lot of symbolic meanings in her contexts, to express her inner feelings and compare emotions to things. You have to read between the lines to see what she really means but at the same time her poems are very straight forward and you know the exact theme of what she is trying to express. One of the poems that caught my attention was called "Keeper of my Dreams" this is a unique and nice poem that I loved.
All of the symbols that Denise uses in this poem are all very positive and show expressive feelings of love. The first symbol that Denise uses is in her title "Keeper of My Dreams “ the title to describes of how she sees him in her and how this person holds her everything. Dreams are symbols of language and can invoke a feeling or an idea and often have a much more profound and deeper meaning. She means that he keeps her safe and knows all her secrets. You have to trust someone in order for them to know your dreams because dreams are very personal and individual. Based on her background and word expression I can determine and see that this poem is about her one true love or someone she is in a relationship with. In the poem she gives feeling/emotion by using a group of memories and describing how life is when she’s with this person and how life is when she’s without this certain individual. In the first stanza she writes about how her life would be without who she is referring to, she uses the symbols you're not here, share (be with), days and nights, incomplete, heart (life), soul (self, spirit), oneness (harmony), seek to interpret her feelings and the emotions. The second stanza she uses deep symbolizing to explain how life is when she's with this person and how life is without this individual the words without (lacking or absent),merely, exist, day to day, with you find, searching, completeness, eternal, peace and mind all have powerful meaning of feeling and emotion. In stanzas three and four we finally see who she is referring to, line 10 "the man who holds my heart in his hands", she is talking about a "man". She keeps using strong words of feeling and attraction. The author repeats the titles name in line 9, keeper, dreams, the one, spend, life, always, stand. She continues to stanza number four with the last word of stanza number 3, stand. In the last 2 stanzas she writes journey, time, place, completeness, two hearts, souls, embrace, forever, search, end, hearts, each other, lovers, soul-mates and friends to finish off her off her poem with this positive poetic love poem.
In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior and in this poem Denise uses a certain ARCHETYPE to describe herself "The Mother Figure" because she seems like she gives her all into this love, a protective nurturer figure as she takes care of him and doesn't let their love die out and gentle provider with the way she writes her poem. Also this man that she refers to can be seems as her "Father Figure" since his the protector of her dreams and leader of her life. She looks up to him for life and happiness and can’t see herself getting rid of this person or living without him. I can tell they have been together through hard situations and for many years, line 13 "stand beside through thick and thin", and line 17 "this journey was started long ago".
She states that he is the keeper (protector) of her dreams (a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep). The poem contains repetition of love emotion throughout the stanzas which I find makes the poem consistent. The title and poem is self-explanatory and the poem is very clear and easy to understand. In first stanza, the poem starts off by saying, when he is not here to be part of her everyday life she feels like her spiritual existence is lacking something, he is her life and harmony and total self that she looks for. In stanza two, She writes how without him she is incomplete (lacking a part) because he is her soul. Without him and in his absence she feels empty but with him she has all the elements and tranquility needed. In stanza three, he is the guard/protector of her thoughts and the man touches and possesses her life, the individual she wants to be with eternally and the one who she will always be next to. In stanza four, they have been together through good and bad situations and next to each other no matter the obstacles in life, she is aware that the emotion they are a part of will lead them every day. In stanza five, all the time and things they been through together began long ago before anything else was created, there love story fulfill her, and they come together as one. In the last stanza, for a limitless time she wants to be next to him because she has found what he needed in him and needs no one else, their hearts (life as individuals) found one another as lovers, as the person who is perfectly suited for her and is attached to her by affection or esteem.
This poem is about a man who the author is in fact in love with. He may be her husband/boyfriend, but there is greatness and positive emotion of love in the whole poem. All the symbolizing used show great affection towards this man and how being together is her eternal (endless) peace of mind. She needs this man in her life to be happy and she wants to be forever with him. The theme of this poem has love, passion and good affection written all over it. She trusted him with her life and with her soul.
"Time is, Time was, Time will always be. We are all but a part of that time."- Denise Mangano
"These are some of my older poems, with my newer ones yet to be put on site. Each person who reads them will take away something that is reflected within them. That is what writing is all about"- Denise Mangano
Work Cited
“Denise Mangano”. Authur’s Den. 28, March 2012.
