The speaker starts with a blunt, somber fact: men die. But dreams are not destroyed so easily. They simply move, change shape, and find new homes or new generations to live in. You cannot line them up against a wall and shoot them, and you cannot bury them so deeply that they are never heard from again. However heavy the pit and clay, dreams behave like ancient seedlings that have kept a sacred rose alive under the ice cap of the world. Sooner or later they work their way up into the light. The feeling is quiet but stubborn. There is grief in the opening lines, yet it turns into defiance and even hope. The mood is cold, buried, and patient at first, then gradually brightens into something enduring and almost triumphant. It suggests that the deepest human longings outlast violence, graves, and even the people who first carried them.
Dreams — Summary
Men die... Dreams only change their houses. They cannot be lined up against a wall And quietly buried under ground, And no more heard of... However deep the pit and heaped the clay-- Like seedlings of old time Hooding a sacred rose under the ice cap of the world-- Dreams will to light.