Antonio Machado’s Poem: A Reflection on Lost Dreams

Antonio Machado’s Poem: A Reflection on Lost Dreams

The main theme of the text is located in its last lines, particularly in the dialogue that the poet maintains with the source within him. The source of the poet tries to remember a dream that is too far away in time. This dialogue between the source and the poet takes place in a space and time perfectly located in the poem:

• Time: Late summer
• Area: A park

With a number of important elements: the ivy on the wall, the rusty iron gate, the old lock that grinds and breaks the silence, and, above all, the water source, distant from his old song.

The Setting: A Park in Late Summer

In a clear and sad summer afternoon, in a park whose elements (ivy, gate, iron, etc.) note the passage of time and neglect, the poet engages in dialogue with the fountain, with the water flowing from it. When asked about the memory of a distant dream, the poet confesses his inability to remember, though he is aware of the long-past.

As if it were a movie scene, we can well imagine the movements of the poet: his approach to the park and the first sight of it, the ivy that protrudes from the wall, the arrival at the gate and how, upon entering, the key grinds in the lock, the sound of the rusty gate that closes with a blow that breaks the silence, and, above all, his steps, as if attracted by a call he cannot help, from which he cannot escape: the old song of the water that flows from the source.

Time: A Summer Afternoon, Sad and Sleepy

But if this is the space described in the poem, no less important is the time coordinate in which the scene is played out: a summer afternoon, to which the poet aptly adjectives “clear”, “sleepy”, but above all, “sad” and “dead”.

The park is sad and dead, the ivy looms “black and dusty” above the wall, the gate creaks, and the bars of the gate appear moldy: neglect, abandonment, silence, solitude. There is no life in that park that man has abandoned long ago. Everything leads to death, even the time of day that the poet has chosen to acclimate the text: a late afternoon.

The Source: A Symbol of Lost Life

And though the source pours its water on “white marble” (another symbol of death) in a monotone, it is the only element of the space that still has life. The water is running, albeit monotonically, and its song is the only note of joy, of life in a still life. Only the source, the song that its water sings, has the ability to engage the poet in a brief dialogue.

A Dialogue with the Inner Self

The question issued to it tries to awaken in him dreams, ideals, or perhaps those yearnings of youth, that desire to live in another time, too distant and encouraging for the poet. His response, tinged with great pessimism, is nothing more than the confession of what has been lost, which, while recognizing as distant, he feels is forgotten and dead.

The Poem’s Significance: An Inner Journey

In this way, we can finally understand the exact significance of the whole poem. The space-time coordinates are not only a framework for dialogue with the source, a short dialogue with himself because this poem is nothing else but a walk in the poet’s innermost self. On the evening of life, sad and sleepy, those feelings, aspirations, and hopes have been abandoned. The last time the ivy has become black and dusty, and when the poet opens his soul, creaking and rusty, he just finds neglect, abandonment, silence, and solitude—the loneliness of death.