Most people including me often dream of an element of fantasies or longings from reality. Dreams are interesting because sometimes they are so vivid and very intense that you cannot tell if they are realafter awaking up. People have dreamed of things they wish would happen or already happened. “Dream Children: A Reverie,” written by Charles Lamb,an English essayist, talks about a dream he had in his essay. This essay was first published in 1823 as a collection in “Essays of Elia.” Brander Matthews, first United States professor of dramatic literature, notes about Lamb and his essay, “Dream Children: A Reverie.” “Lamb is the heir of the eighteenth century essayist, but with a richer imagination… he is an essayist rather than a story teller…he could dream dreams as the other poets have done: and here is one of them…”When I first read this essay, I had a difficult time reading and understanding it. It was shocking to me that the author actually wrote a four page essay about a silly dream he had in the middle of a day in his armchair. It was hard to understand what Charles Lamb is trying to tell readers and his essay did not make sense to me at all until I read biographies such as “The Life of Charles Lamb,” by Edward Verrall Lucas and “Charles Lamb” by Thomas Craddock, about his life and career. A “Dream Children: A Reverie” starts with Charles Lamb telling readers about his adorable children Alice and John and their great grandmother, Mrs. Field. While I was reading this essay, it was hard for me to realize that I was reading about his dream or fantasy until the end of the essay where he wakes up and says “we are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all…we are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams” (Lopate172). Althoug...
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...ames Elia) was gone forever.”(Lopate172). This essay fundamentally is about the manifestation of Charles Lamb wishing to have married Ann Simmons, have children, and have meet his loving grandmother and his older brother John L. It is surprising that without ever having any children, Lamb knew how children react to certain happenings and experiences. By describing his children’s physical motions with precision, he successfully catches readers’ attention and makes them believe that his fictional characters are real.
Works Cited
Craddock, Thomas. Charles Lamb. Charleston: BiblioBazaar, 2009.
Lopate, Phillip. The Art of the Personal Essay. New York:Anchor Books, 1995.
Lucas, Edward Verral. The Life of Charles Lamb. Memphis: Books LLC, 2009.
Matthews, Brander .Notes to Dream-Children; A Revery. 2011. 22 Mar.
2011 .
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