After the first reading of this poem I had no idea what is was about; I found it harder to grasp than the other poems we've done so far. I still don't really get it, but I have a better understanding of it than I did at first. Slightly.
In the poem, the persona (assumably a woman) is trying to persuade her lover to repent his sins and to join her in heaven so that they can be together. They have both sinned and although there are no concrete details of what they did, it is insinuated that they had premartaial sex: the quote "the gifts we took and gave" suggests that they gave each others their viginity but it was 'taken' because it wasn't officially theirs to have as the couple aren't married. Also, the persona's "lily feet are soiled with mud" which again suggests loss of virginity as lilies are white, the colour associated with purity and virtue, and her feet are now dirty which is how she would have been perceived by society afterwards.
There is a lot of imagery of heaven and earth and the two are deliberately contrasted to reflect the character's views: the persona wants to be in heaven and her lover is content with being on earth; "your eyes look earthward, mine look up." The idea of heaven is very attractive to the persona - it is portrayed as being grand and peaceful, being a place with "a gleaming strand of mansions" where people "sleeep at ease amoung their trees." Also, in heaven they would have forever together whereas on earth "the time is short" and "tomorrow nigh" which suggests that she thinks that a lfetime is not long enough for her to spend with him. However, to her, heaven is "far-off" as she has not yet persuaded her lover to go with her and she doesn't want to go without him beacuse heaven doesn't compare to the love they have, shown by how she asks "how should I rest in Paradise or sit on steps of heaven alone?" and how she would feel "pitiful pangs" if he were not there with her.
I don't really get the whole dream thing either. The message in the first seems to be that knowledge is nothing compared to love and again is quite possibly a ploy to persuade the man, but the second...no idea.
The persona seems to be in conflict throughout the poem, pulled possibly by religion as well as her lover. Perhaps she has decided to follow religion and repent her sins for now, but hopes be with her lover once again in heaven some day. Either way there's a lot of biblical language in the poem and religion seems to be a fairly big thing.
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