If I were young as once I was, / and dreams and death more distant then
-- Speaker (Lines 1-2)

Importance: This image is echoed again at the very end of the poem, acting as a refrain and bookending the speaker’s memories. It presents the concepts of dreams and death as two facets of the same state of being: an otherworldly, in-between consciousness beyond the mortal world. It’s also worth noting the poet’s association with the concept of dreams, a motif which is explored regularly in his work — most notably in his long-running Sandman series, in which Dream and Death are two of the central characters.

She'd pluck wild eagles from the air / and nail me to a lightning tree
-- Speaker (Lines 11-12)

Importance: This line is a reference to the world tree in Norse mythology, with suggestions of other world myths and folklore such as the significance of oaks (believed to protect against lightning) in Celtic...