and dreaming. The same is with Purdy's text which is in fact an account of an odd dream. Love is not mentioned in any way, but it is inherent in both poems. Atwood thus speaks about her wish to descend into her lover's sleep, that is, to dive deeply into his subconscious and meet his greatest fear and his greatest grief.
             This is certainly a different way of approaching the theme of love. Here, the union between the two lovers is not an ecstatic feeling, but a submerged, deep sensation. The imagery of the poem is quite very evocative and the tone is rather slumberous and heavy. The scenery depicted recalls a fairytale atmosphere, typical of dreams. The silver branch, the white flower, the boat, the stairway or the three moons are all symbolic dream-elements, signifying the journey or the descent into the dark subconscious state. Water, present even from the first stanza is obviously an archetypal image o
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