A Morning DREAM

Underneath a skylight I

In my bed o'mornings lie,

Staring up through window-panes

Made dim by unremembered rains,

And always see above my face

A wavy tree in dingy space.

Beyond the greeny branch up there

Flows the deep and clear Blue air,

So that I almost seem to be

Drowned at the bottom of the sea

Within the cabin of a ship

Wrecked on a long-forgotten trip.

And I who lie so still abed

Might be some mariner long-dead,

While green and blue above me flow,

And Living Weeds wave to and fro,

And withered leaves like fishes skim

The streams of air where sparrows swim.

ELEANOR FARJEON

Summary: In 'A Morning Dream' by Eleanor Farjeon, the speaker describes a dreamlike experience while lying in bed in the morning. As they gaze up through a skylight, they see a tree with wavy branches against the backdrop of a dimly lit, rain-streaked window.

The view through the skylight takes on an otherworldly quality, with the clear blue sky and space beyond the branches evoking the feeling of being submerged at the bottom of the sea. The speaker imagines themselves as if inside the cabin of a ship, which had been wrecked on a distant voyage long ago, and now rests in the deep sea.

The speaker, as they lie still in their bed, muses that they might be like a long-dead mariner in this underwater world. The scene outside the skylight is filled with green and blue hues, resembling the depths of the ocean. They imagine the branches of the tree above as living weeds swaying in the currents, and withered leaves passing by like fish in the streams of air where sparrows glide.

The poem beautifully captures the dreamlike quality of the morning, blurring the lines between the waking world and the realm of dreams, as the speaker's imagination conjures a surreal underwater landscape.