'You should appear less often in my dreams'

by

You Should Appear Less Often in My Dreams (1921) explores the strange tenderness that only appears in dreams, where a lover becomes the gentle person they cannot be in waking life. "Ah, in dreams you won't mistake my name, / Or gently sigh, as you do here."
Author Anna Akhmatova

You should appear less often in my dreams,
Since we meet so frequently;
Yet only in night's sanctuary
Are you sad, troubled, and tender.
And sweeter than seraphic praise
Is your lips' dear flattery…
Ah, in dreams you won't mistake my name,
Or gently sigh, as you do here.

This poem is featured in our selection of 100 Great Poems.