Oneirology

[Adolescent09]

Inspired by the latest album by The CunninLynguists.

Oneirology: (from Greek , oneiros, "dream"; and , '''', "the study of") is the scientific study of dreams. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirology


They lie supine on beds of naught

and pillows of wrath where sanity whispers

Her lullaby to cauterize the wound of an angry sequence

Involving Men battling to the death with Doubt

Mowing a lawn of vacancies with the blades of spite

And spitting the last vestige of freedom

Into the bottom of the scientists’ test tube

While the latter unanimously contend,

“In war, man’s bout is with a tear drop,

no bigger than his own dream”

[Bar22do]

I don't know about the album, but have a question: are you against science? And how does your poem relate to oneirology? I somehow don't get it. Though I can feel you're trying to convey something important to you. But - whatever! I enjoy reading what you share.

[Adolescent09]

I thank you kindly for replying to/reading my poem Bar; I will answer your questions to the best of my ability. The meaning of the poem might be as inconspicuous as the definition of oneirology. Essentially, the paradoxical definition of oneirology or the scientific study (inferring a very specific analysis of a subject) of dreams (which are anything but specific and dodge exactitude at the same rate that science pursues existentialism) presents a topic of intrigue to the writer and a means of being whisked away on a fleeting journey for the reader, only to be trapped within the confines of reality by the limits of scientific knowledge. The concept of the poem is quite plain when you keep three words in mind while reading it: dreams, war and science. War is one of the many subjects of dreams that have plagued everyone from war hero veterans to children who have seen Pearl Harbor documentaries on television. This simple concept poem dealt primarily with war and the recurring theme of oneirology.

They lie supine on beds of naught

Supine might have been unnecessarily wordy here but the phrase to focus on in this line is 'beds of naught' or the notion that dreams don't have any tangible meaning when you wake up even though the bed you are lying on when you dream is very real. This is just a concept poem inspired by an underground Hip-Hop album that dealt with this topic in far greater detail than I did so I wasn't planning on making the message too profound so as to come off as pretentious.

pillows of wrath alludes to war/animosity surrounding war. The word sanity is supposed to be ironic because 'they' are dreaming about war, which is a wild and chaotic thing, and yet they are sleeping in peace and harmony; the 'sanity' aspect. Lullaby bears the same ironic tone as sanity. 'to cauterize the wound of an angry sequence' jumps erratically from the sanity/lullaby parts by going from peace back to war in the same way that dreams tend to haphazardly jump from one sequence to the other and back. battling to the death with Doubt is as ironic as war being sane because these men don't know who they are fighting (is it with a dream, with reality, with themselves, who knows..?) and yet they battle to the death. The next line carries the same irony. spitting the last vestige of freedom This line deals with the complete servitude that 'they' have to their dreams while they are asleep thereby sacrificing all of their freedom (that, which they would have if they were awake) to the dream. The scientists are the oneirologists or the people who are studying these sleeping mens' dreams. After they have conducted their study of the participants they unanimously agree that in war, man's battle is with a tear drop, no bigger than his own dream or in other words according to the oneirologist, man's fight in the heart of war is nothing in contrast with what he deals with after war in his dreams/nightmares.