"It Was a Dream" by Lucille Clifton

For me, the description in this poem, though plentiful, does not perform the true emotional work of the piece. It acts mostly to provide a setting and character through which the powerful dialogue can affect the reader.

The poem's initial line confused me slightly until I realized that the title was meant to precede it. I loved this because I was forced to reread the title and appreciate its importance within the poem; the setting and the spirit within it are both a dream. So often I read a poem's title, and then it slips away as I turn to the poem itself. That didn't happen here, and in fact, it provided the last line with a stunning personal profundity. "Oh what could I have done?" "This. This. This." In my mind, the apparition beckons to herself, in that she is a dream. She tells the author that she could have dreamed, dared to dream, to live the life she once envisioned for herself. This notion captures me and inclines me to consider my own regrets and lost dreams.