In Dreams

The lyrics describe someone who finds comfort in dreams of a person who has left. At night, the speaker can feel close to this person, but morning brings the painful reality of their absence. The emotional movement is from gentle, almost childlike hope to sadness and helplessness.

The “sandman” is a traditional figure who brings sleep; here, he makes bedtime seem magical and safe. “Stardust” suggests the wonder of entering a dream. The repeated phrase “in dreams” marks a private world where the speaker and the beloved can be together. By contrast, “just before the dawn” signals the moment when that imagined closeness ends and waking life returns.

The song does not say whether dreaming truly comforts the speaker or makes the loss harder to bear. It seems to do both: the dreams offer reunion, but waking up sharpens the sense of separation. The speaker’s tears are not presented as a choice; “I can’t help it” suggests grief that is difficult to control. The dreams are called beautiful, yet their beauty is fragile because they cannot change what happened while awake.