THE FIRST DREAM BY BILLY COLLINS

The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight
and as I lean against the door of sleep
I begin to think about the first person to dream,
how quiet he must have seemed the next morning

as the others stood around the fire
draped in the skins of animals
talking to each other only in vowels,
for this was long before the invention of consonants.

He might have gone off by himself to sit
on a rock and look into the mist of a lake
as he tried to tell himself what had happened,
how he had gone somewhere without going,

how he had put his arms around the neck
of a beast that the others could touch
only after they had killed it with stones,
how he felt its breath on his bare neck.

Then again, the first dream could have come
to a woman, though she would behave,
I suppose, much the same way,
moving off by herself to be alone near water,

except that the curve of her young shoulders
and the tilt of her downcast head
would make her appear to be terribly alone,
and if you were there to notice this,

you might have gone down as the first person
to ever fall in love with the sadness of another.

After reading the title, where do you think we are going?

1.    1.  It’s     a trip into the dream. 

 What sort of trip do you think this will be? Does sound fun?   

2.       No it sounds scary because “the wind is ghosting around the house tonight” and the night is filled with uncertainty.

After reading the first stanza, where do we seem to be going?

3.       Not sure but I think we seem to be going into the dream as “I begin to think of the first person

To dream”.

What sight do we see?

4.       Imagery of  fire , rocks and a lake

Where will we go next?

5.       We will go to the lake to reflect about life.

Do we need special clothes? What kind? Are they comfortable?

6.       Not really when we feel cold we will just “stand around the fire and drape ourselves in the skins of animals”

Who do we meet along the way or who goes with us?

7.       We meet a beast and how one of us “had put his arms around the neck” but the rest of us “could touch only after they had killed it with stones”

What time have we travel led to? How do we feel here?

8.       We travel to the Stone Age “long before the invention of consonants” we feel savage following basic instincts.

What is the climate like? Does the weather change during our journey or does it stay the same throughout?

9.       We do not care we are savage beasts who do whatever it takes to survive.

Where do we arrive next? What is the next place like? Is it fun?

10.   Next we arrive into the hands of our lover. “Then again, the first dream could have come to a woman”

Whom do we meet?

11.   We meet desire in lust in form of a woman.

What do people seem to be doing?

12.   The woman seems to be sitting in misery shown by “the tilt of her downcast head” that “make her appear to be terribly alone.”

Where have we arrived at the end? What kind of place is this? How does it compare to the place where we going?

13.   We have arrived at the point of realization of what its truly like to love someone completely and holy and be swayed by their emotions  and “you might have gone down as the first person to ever fall in love with the sadness of another.”